Hadrian

Government expected to scrap EV mandate in favour of new fuel efficiency system: source | CBC News The federal government is expected to announce its national automotive strategy on Thursday that includes scrapping Canada's electric vehicle mandate and replacing it with a new system of fuel efficie...

Very disappointed to see the EV mandate in Canada being dropped.

Based on recent and ongoing work modelling EV adoption I expect this will slow EV adoption in Canada through lack of vehicle availability. 1/

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Prime Minister Carney launches new strategy to transform Canada’s auto industry The world is changing rapidly, fundamentally reshaping trade relationships and leaving economies, businesses, and workers under a cloud of uncertainty.

The federal EV mandate is officially dead. Instead, we get a basket of incentives that may or may not actually reduce emissions from the transportation sector. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news...

Don't miss this, next week! @policyalternatives.ca Senior Researcher focused on climate change, @hadrianmk.bsky.social, will be speaking. Details here: globeandmailevents.com/futureofauto...

Where does the climate movement go from here? - CCPA The following is a re-print of the December 2025 edition of Shift Storm, the CCPA’s monthly newsletter which focuses on the intersection of work and climate change. Click here to subscribe to Shift St...

There is a time for pragmatism, but there is also a time for idealism. What time is it now? By @hadrianmk.bsky.social #ClimateAction www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

"AI will solve Canada's productivity crisis"
"AI will solve the climate crisis"
"AI will prevent the next pandemic"
"AI will strengthen democracy"
"AI will expand access to education"

idk seems like it's usually doing the opposite so far?

Whose (artificial) intelligence? - CCPA The many contradictions of the AI moment

"It’s a catch-22—the more we rely on AI tools, the more we need to be able to critically assess their outputs. Yet the more we use them, the worse we get at doing so." www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Whose (artificial) intelligence? - CCPA The many contradictions of the AI moment

"We are at a crucial societal juncture for artificial intelligence. And to arrive at an AI-saturated world that actually serves the public interest, we need a clear-eyed view of what artificial intelligence is and is not."

My latest with Rachel Pettigrew: www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

No Matter Which Way You Look at It, Carney Has Abandoned Climate | The Walrus It’s one thing to make compromises in times of national crisis. It’s another to twist the math on emissions

When Carney became prime minister, many in the climate community (and beyond) wondered if he understood politics as well as he did $$.

Turns out that was the wrong thing to worry about.
My latest for @thewalrus.ca

thewalrus.ca/no-matter-wh...

This strikes me as a bit of a straw man. The climate movement has been hammering on a wellbeing-focused clean energy build out for many years (eg. Green New Deal). The problem is that FF supply hurts renewables investment, and the political power of FF interests actively blocks cleaner alternatives.

We are at the stage of the energy transition where we have to invent new terms for structurally weak oil prices.

What questions do you have about the Ottawa-Alberta energy deal and climate change? | CBC Radio President of the Canadian Climate Institute Rick Smith and political economist Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood answer your questions about the Ottawa-Alberta energy deal and climate change. In hour two, what...

I'll be on @cbcradiocanada.bsky.social's Just Asking today (alongside @rjcsmith.bsky.social) to talk pipelines, climate and the future of the Canadian economy. We're taking calls from across the country at 4pm ET! Join us!
www.cbc.ca/radio/justas...

China's LNG Imports Set to Drop for 13th Month, Kpler Data Show Seaborne shipments of liquefied natural gas to China in November are set to drop for a 13th straight month on an annual basis, extending a slump in purchases as dom…

Look out BC! China’s LNG demand drops for 13th month running. Last week, Pakistan cancelled a huge contract to purchase LNG from Qatar (even choosing to pay a penalty) because they no longer need/want it -- the solar revolution is quickly displacing demand for LNG.
financialpost.com/pmn/business...

If you think a SECOND federally-backed oil pipeline in ten years is going to make the #AB #UCP suddenly support carbon pricing and climate action, I've got some bad news for you.

When it comes to grand bargains negotiated with Alberta to advance climate action, this is a "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" sort of situation.

Other stuff I wont comment on thats outside my wheelhouse (impact of tankers etc). But on the whole very disappointing MOU that has a whole lot of backpedaling and climate delay. (Reminder that climate delay is the new climate denial and in 2025 leads in effect to the same outcome).

There will be more to say, but for now worth remembering what happened the last time the feds struck a "grand bargain" with #AB. The only thing left over from that deal to get #AB support for climate action is the #TMX pipeline.

Gov statement (not the MOU itself) says the deal will "lower emissions." Almost certainly false when the #1 stated objective of the MOU is "increasing production of Alberta oil and gas." Emissions intensity ≠ total emissions. It's well-worn sleight of hand.

Indigenous Peoples/rightsholders mentioned 19 times, but no indication Indigenous folks were actually involved in this MOU. Guarantees of "meaningful consultation" and "economic opportunities," but no mention of consent.

Potentially interesting layer to this onion: #AB gets big #AI data centre build-out, but those data centres are powered in part through electricity transmission from #BC? Details unclear, but more integrated electricity grids is something industrial policy experts have been hammering for years.

Making the "lowest carbon intensity produced barrels of oil in the world" is fundamentally incoherent. If you care about climate change, you know there's no long-term role for oil. If you don't care about climate change, low-carbon oil is a waste of money.

Also, "creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs" is an absurd and meaningless claim. The O&G industry is shedding jobs aggressively. A new pipeline will, in a best case scenario, sustain a few thousand jobs in the broader industry over the long term.

To be clear, even if the pipeline is never built (huge barriers remain + the business case is weak), the feds are making meaningfully regulatory concessions *now* that will matter either way.

Ramping up industrial carbon pricing to "a minimum effective credit price of $130/tonne" is potentially a huge deal and the biggest silver lining here, but "ramp up" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this MOU. Basically, #AB gets to pollute more now in exchange for speculative future reductions.

- oil tanker ban dead
- feds to ramp up subsidies for #CCUS
- new non-emitting power to come from nuclear, not renewables
- greenwashing regulations to be gutted (not entirely removed)
- #CCUS and pipeline mutually contingent, so emissions won't come down before they go up

Lots to unpack here. A couple immediate takeaways:
- oil and gas emissions cap is officially dead (after being only implicitly killed in #Budget2025)
- clean electricity regulations potentially dead, following further negotiations
- Alberta gov will be the proponent for new bitumen pipeline

The doublespeak around achieving net-zero emissions and "unlocking the growth potential of Western Canada’s oil and gas" is dizzying.

Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding PREFACE At this pivotal global moment, Canada and Alberta, working closely with Indigenous Peoples and industry, must work together cooperatively, and within their respective jurisdictions, to foster ...

Here's the Carney-Smith pipeline MOU: www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/back...

The AI hype-machine: Canada’s ill-advised ‘national sprint’ on artificial intelligence Cynthia Khoo, Jeff Doctor and Hadrian Mertons-Kirkwood discuss the dangers of Canada’s accelerated approach to artificial intelligence.

"The way that the federal government ... talks about AI is very ideological … We need to adopt it for its own sake, independent of what that actually means … We’re rushing without having a clear sense of where we’re going.” @hadrianmk.bsky.social #cdnpoli rabble.ca/podcast/the-...

Stop wasting money on pipelines. Give us real nation-building projects This week’s agreement between Ottawa and Alberta on a pipeline to B.C.’s north coast is the latest chapter in this weird, depressing tale of wasting tens of billions of dollars

Stop wasting money on pipelines. Give us real nation-building projects.

📰 My latest in the Toronto Star, as we wait to see the final details today of this MOU between the governments of Alberta and Canada.

#Cdnpoli #EnergySky #Climate

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

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