Canada at COP28: Policy Announcements Abroad, Political Tensions at Home

In the final hours of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, nearly 200 countries including Canada agreed to transition away from oil, gas, and coal by 2050, going further than previous commitments to achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of the century. The governments are now expected to enact policies and initiatives to advance fossil fuel transitioning, as they did for the 2015 Paris Agreement, such as Canada’s 2030 emissions-reduction target. The COP28 agreement will likely escalate tensions even further between Canada’s oil-producing provinces and the governing Liberals. As it is, Alberta and Saskatchewan have been arguing and concerned that the Paris Agreement’s commitment to a “just transition” of the fossil fuel workforce—now making its way into government legislation to move workers toward a “low-carbon future”—is shorthand for phasing out oil and gas....