Is Market-based Climate Action Working for Canadians? with Brendan Haley

Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy

The price of carbon is in the news again with Conservatives in Canada, and around the world where carbon pricing schemes exist, fuel backlash against the climate policy. Adding to their opposition to carbon pricing policy is today's profit-induced inflation and affordability crisis.

For the centrist regimes that pushed for this market-mechanism as their main climate policy plank, they’ve been put on the back foot.

In Europe, for instance, Green and Liberal parties have suffered major setbacks in the recent waves of EU, national, and subnational elections where a so-called “Greenlash” against climate policies were blamed for contributing to these electoral defeats

In Canada, recent headlines have sparked debate, and confusion, as to what climate action policy ought to be. Retrenchment of Canada’s carbon pricing system, implemented by the Trudeau Liberal government through its 2017 Pan-Canadian Framework, has been put on the table and has worried climate action groups.
On the other hand, justification for this approach has argued that the burden on the working-class has been too much—that the real culprits for carbon emissions, the industries and corporate profiteers, ought to instead be paying their fair share. Canadians have been expressing their frustrations against the carbon pricing scheme, believing it to be ineffective at reducing emissions while also believing climate change is a threat that must be addressed.

To cut through this confusion, Brendan Haley joins this episode of the Perspectives Journal podcast. As a climate expert, Broadbent Institute policy fellow, and editorial committee member of Perspectives, we discuss from a social democratic point-of-view as to whether the market-based approach to climate action is working for Canadians.

Notes

• REPORT - A Green Entrepreneurial State as Solution to Climate Federalism, by Brendan Haley, Broadbent Institute, 2015.
• "Europe is in the middle of a ‘greenlash.’ If Canada doesn’t put workers first in its green transition, we could be next," The Hill Times, by Luke Lebrun, June 19, 2024.
• REPORT - Our Common Platform: A Path to a Green Economy in Canada, prepared by the Green Economy Network (GEN), published September 2023.
• The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, by Karl Polanyi, 1944.
• Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, by Mariana Mazzucato, 2021.
• SURVEY - Extreme Weather Events, Leger, released September 13, 2023.
• SURVEY - Raise, pause, abolish? Centre-left voters rally around carbon tax, but majority would still reduce or eliminate it, Angus Reid Institute, released March 25, 2024.
• REVIEW - Profit, not price, is why we keep burning fossil fuels, review of The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won'