New natural resources minister says fighting climate change is still his job

Story Transcript

Jonathan Wilkinson may no longer be Canada's environment minister, but he says it's still his mandate to help the country meet its carbon reduction targets.

During Tuesday's cabinet shuffle, Wilkinson was appointed the new minister of natural resources. His old job heading up the Ministry of Environment went to former climate activist Steven Guilbeault. The pair will now work together to reduce carbon emissions while creating new jobs, says Wilkinson.

With the 2021 United Nations climate change (COP26) conference set to begin in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday, Canadians may get their first sense of just how dynamic the duo will be.

• Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

The Conference of Parties, or COP, meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up in the 1990s to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.

Here is part of Wilkinson's conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

The view from the oilpatch is that you and your colleague, Steven Guilbeault, are a team assigned to put the blocks to Canada's fossil fuel industry. Is there possibly some truth to that?

No, I think what I was charged with before the cabinet shuffle was putting together Canada's climate plan that would be ambitious and aligned with what the science tells us we need to do in terms of reductions. But, of course, there was also a focus on economic growth and opportunity. How do you actually ensure that the economy is going to thrive in a low-carbon universe? 

And I've now been asked to head up an economic ministry that's really focussed on finding pathways to do that that are going to create jobs.

How closely will you be working with your colleague in the environment ministry, Steven Guilbeault?

We're going to be working very closely together. It's kind of two sides of the same coin.

At the end of the day, his mandate is to continue to move forward with a number of elements of the [climate] plan, particularly around regulatory matters, and to try to ensure that we're continuing to be ambitious alongside our partners in the international realm.

And my job, by and large, is to implement elements of the plan and to focus on how we actually drive growth.

And so what will [your government] be taking to Glasgow? 

We're taking with us our enhanced target, one of the most detailed climate plans in the world, Canada's commitment to double its international climate finance envelope, [and] the work that I did with Germany to land the $100 billion for international climate finance for the developing countries around the world, which is a key part of a successful COP in Glasgow. And we're bringing, essentially, Canada's openness in collaborating on closing the Paris rule book and finishing the final negotiations, but also encouraging other countries that have not yet raised their level of ambition to do so.

The report out today from Oil Change International says Canada's financial support for the oil and gas industry outpaces every other country in the G20. And so investments in renewables, they say, are lagging far behind. So how do you square that with what you've just said [about] your commitment to making this transition?

I would say, I guess, a few things. I mean, the first is absolutely we do need to reduce emissions from all sectors of the economy, and that very much includes the oil and gas space.

As you will be aware, one of the commitments we made during the campaign was to cap emissions from oil and gas and to have five-year binding requirements in terms of reductions on a pathway to net zero by 2050. And that is something that we certainly intend to do going forward.

But I mean, let's be clear. This government has been enormously ambitious on climate. We have developed perhaps the most detailed climate plan that exists in the world. The international community has sat up and taken notice of Canada's work. And that is why the United Kingdom, as the chair of COP, asked Canada and Germany to co-lead on corralling $100 billion in climate finance.

Canada is punching above its weight on the world stage with respect to climate change. We intend to continue to do so.

But plans and actions are different things, aren't they? First of all, let's talk about the net zero by 2050 that you expect to have in the oilpatch. You're talking about the emissions that would come from producing oil and gas, right? You're not talking about reducing the amount of oil and gas that is actually extracted. 

There's only two ways that you can reduce emissions. One is through improvements in emissions intensity, and the other is through declines in production.

And certainly part of the focus has to be on essentially displacing demand for oil, which is primarily a transportation fuel. In Canada, we are leading on that in the sense that we've committed to 100 per cent of cars sold after 2035 will be zero-emission vehicles. They won't use oil. 

And Canada will continue to work with other parties around the world to collaborate, but also to try to encourage the same ambition on the part of other countries.

We're hearing from Denmark and Costa Rica. They are signing up countries, and they will be doing so in Glasgow …  to a commitment to end all new fossil fuel exploration and development [and] to actually give a date. Each country, they're asking to give a date as to when that will happen. Will Canada answer that call?

At Glasgow, there's probably 50 different declarations that are under the process of actually being developed and circulated around. And so Canada, just as every other country, is in the process of reviewing all of those and determining which ones it will support, and which ones it won't. So you will certainly hear from us on all of those at Glasgow. 

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Kevin Robertson. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.