Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday acknowledged that “our emissions will be higher in the next few years” as he pivots Canada’s energy strategy to re-embrace oil and gas, but said it will help unite the country long-term.
The comments in a pre-recorded video released on Carney’s YouTube channel — the latest in his “Forward Guidance” series aimed at speaking directly to Canadians about his government policies — were his clearest criticisms to date of his predecessor Justin Trudeau’s climate policies.
They also served as an olive branch to Alberta, as the province contends with a separatist movement that was in part fuelled by backlash to federal efforts to restrain the Alberta oil industry in favour of cleaner energy sources.
“I want to be clear on this point: the changes we have made will mean that our emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government’s plan,” Carney said in the video.
“But in my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term.”
He said the “well-intentioned” Trudeau-era policies, including caps on greenhouse gas emissions and oil production as well as the consumer carbon price, would have further driven up prices for Canadians struggling with affordability and made Canada less attractive for foreign exports and investment.
“And it would have been too divisive for our country,” he added. “In the current environment, the old plan was an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart both at home and from abroad.”
Albertans are set to vote in a referendum in October on whether the province should remain a part of Canada or pursue a future ballot question on separation. Carney has compared the issue to Brexit in the U.K., warning of negative reverberating consequences.
Federal officials from all parties have been campaigning in favour of Alberta remaining in Canada, with Carney confirming to reporters Tuesday he will spend part of Canada Day in the province.
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Carney, who was raised in Edmonton, has sought to restore relations with Alberta since becoming prime minister last year, in part by negotiating a new energy agreement, which includes laying the groundwork for a new oil pipeline to the West Coast.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office has promised a “major announcement” on Thursday to share new details about the province’s submission for the pipeline project to the federal major projects office.
Steven Guilbeault, a climate activist who served as Trudeau’s environment minister, resigned from Carney’s cabinet and then from the House of Commons as he watched many of the policies he championed get rolled back.
Under the Paris climate agreement, Canada committed to reducing its emissions by 40 to 45 per cent from the 2005 level by 2030. Carney has said repeatedly that Canada is still committed to that target, but he hasn’t said how it can achieve it.
A government progress report released in December 2025 showed that Canada’s best-case scenario model had the country achieving only a 28 per cent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels in 2030.
A study in February by the Canadian Climate Institute suggested Canada is not on track to meet any of its climate targets — the 2026 interim emissions reduction target, the 2030 Paris Agreement commitment and the long-term goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
“I think this is the first time that he has publicly admitted that they are breaking with their climate commitments and that they’re tearing up the climate plan that the Trudeau government developed,” Sven Biggs, director of Stand.Earth’s oil and gas campaign, told Global News after seeing Carney’s video.
“It’s somewhat of an admission of defeat.”
Amnesty International also criticized Carney’s “alarming” position in light of punishing heat waves in Canada and in Europe, where hundreds of people have died.
“Prime Minister Carney must shift away from fossil fuels and toward an economy based in human rights and dignity for all, powered by renewable energy. The cost of this fossil-fuel expansion is too high for present and future generations,” Ketty Nivyabandi, the English-language secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said in a statement.
Carney said in Tuesday’s video that it was most important to build a “strong, united country working together in our common interest,” as Canada seeks to diversify from the U.S. and build a more resilient economy.
He said the new pipeline and other energy projects being pursued will boost exports to other international markets, and that infrastructure will be built sustainably and with low emissions in mind.
“The truth is, nobody knows how long the global economy will rely on conventional energy,” Carney said. “But while it does, as much of that energy as possible should come from Canada.
“We need not allow the transition from one era to another to pull us apart,” he added.
Under the Ottawa-Alberta energy accord, Ottawa’s support for the new West Coast pipeline is contingent upon the building of the massive Pathways carbon capture and storage project that would offset some of the emissions impact from increased oilsands production.
Carney said sustainability will also be prioritized as Canada increases electricity infrastructure through its electricity and nuclear energy strategies to double national electrical capacity by 2050.
The strategies call for building out an interconnected grid powered by a mix of energy sources including nuclear, oil and gas, wind and solar.
“The path to affordability is electrification,” he said. “The path to competitiveness is electrification. The path to sustainability is electrification.”
Biggs said Canada needs to embrace its electrification goals more forcefully or risk being left behind by allies like Europe, Asian partners and even the U.S. in the transition to renewable energy.
He noted a majority of the projects referred to the new federal major projects office involve oil and gas or mining, with few renewable energy initiatives by comparison.
“There is a ton of work to be done, a ton of projects that need to be built to make that energy transition,” Biggs said.
“Canada is not a player in that area right now, but there’s a ton of opportunity that we are currently missing out on.”
— with files from The Canadian Press
Canada will never ever be unified. How can it. We hate Alberta because they MAY want to separate but frogville has wanted this for decades but Alberta is the villain. We import Indians and Pakistanis and they hate each other more divisions, Muslims that hate everyone… we are absolutely done as a country. No coming back. Happy Canada day.
@AM
Gotta agree with you there!
Scrapping the platform you he ran on to appease Alberta at the expense of youth across the global…. An irrational response to an irrational crisis that won’t actually get the separatists to back down.
Alan Mayes – we will use the USD which is better than CDN; the indigenous signed treaties with the FEDERAL CROWN, they’re yours to support until they decide otherwise; we send $60B to Ottawa annually – our healthcare will be fine. No military? What military does Canada have now? No freetrade? Who are you to decide who Alberta trades with? Perhaps we’ll stop shipping oil and gas across Canada. Maybe provinces will now have to pay heavy duties to ship through Alberta. No RCMP – we already have Alberta Sheriffs. No Canadian passport? Hate to break it to ya but you can’t take our passports as we were born here; we’ll just have an Alberta Passport as well. I suggest you stop watching CBC and put your elbows down. You just completely showed how truly ignorant liberals are.
Hahahaha we really dont care anymore. We want to be wealthy like you carney. Must be nice to screw over 2 countries before your 60. Weak mean create hard times and mark carney is very weak
@Allen
Your terms are acceptable
I think Carney used the wrong word there. I think he meant to say, “taxes will be higher”. His energy plan will unify Canada in poverty.
At least his talk is better than Trudeau. The Trudeau years were terrifying.
Carney is all talk and has zero credibility till he actually gets something built and completed. Even housing starts are down as him being PM. He talks a good game, but no results are shown.
Ask any AI how many trees are in Canada. Then ask it how much CO2 each tree absorbs. Then ask it how much CO2 Canada emits. You’ll find that Canada is already absorbs 4-8 times the amount of carbon we emit. But sure, let’s worry about a few percentage points here and there.
The implicit point Carney is making is that we must be pragmatic in the face of external threats, especially the US.
Nobody cares about emissions that fad is long over.
Same old, fossil fuel addicted, corporate owned liberal PUPPETS…dependent on substandard petroleum products, lies and deceit.
This party is a national nightmare!!!!
NO CONFIDENCE!!!
NONE.
This guy is a fake a phoney. All sizzle and no steak. He has no credibility and don’t believe a word he says.
Carney hasn’t started one project yet. The only extra emissions right now is the hot air from him performative speeches.
Interesting how dirty Nuclear fission energy is lumped in with renewable energy. How does that work?
There is a lot of work to be done on Nuclear Fusion, where it does not generate nuclear waste.
Electricity, generated with oil and gas loses energy. Science 101. Wind power produces nothing in calm, and solar does nothing in our cold dark winters. – So why would electricity be renewable? There is a limit to hydro electric dams.
I guess we will see on Thursday, when Smith announces a northern pipeline…
Carney hasn’t succeeded in anything so maybe the environmentalists will get lucky
lots of talk, no action, same old libs.
You mean the climate plan Carney supported from 2020 – 2025 then flip flopped on during his back on sacred cow Liberal climate policies.
Mark Carnage is turning out to be a worse planet killer than Trump. We will all end up paying for his myopia & paying dearly, starting with massive increases to our severe weather insurance coverage, for those lucky enough to still be able to get it.
Carney continues to gaslight Canadians. His chickens will come home to roost as he hasn’t delivered anything simce becoming PM. No trade deal as promised, etc.
@LOrd: Who gives a phuck about your pro-trump babbling. Carney is at 67%.
trump is in the low 30’s at home and PP? Low 20s.
Got it?
I’m all for protecting the climate. The problem is the fact we are a small emitter. So if we go 100% zero CO2 output, nothing will change other than adversely effecting our economy. If we don’t cash in on Oil and Gas, our adversaries will. Adversaries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela will. I’d rather be in a good economic position than our compotators.
Canada should be re-named HELL ON EARTH…. under Carney & the LIEberals. I hope he raises taxes for all Canadians to 151% our tax dollars goes to every other CUNTry… I blame this on the LIEberal voters, make us the 51st state.
Gee, the same old Liberal playbook going back thirty years. We are worried about climate change and are willing to sign all sorts of agreements and make paper reductions meanwhile rapidly expanding the tar sands and building fossil fuel pipelines all over. Chretien did this in 1993 with the Kyoto Agreement, and Martin, and Trudeau, and now Carney. They are just like junkies…just one more hit and I promise I will quit. Nothing gets done, pious statements are made and tons more GHG soar into the atmosphere.
Let’s see if Carny puts his money where his mouth is.
Anonymous is right. To some degree. Some life does need carbon dioxide. Human life along with most if not all animals will die when atmospheric levels increase beyond a certain threshold. However, carbon dioxide is just one small constituent expelled through incomplete combustion of petroleum products. These gases like carbon monoxide, methane and others are the real environment killers.
What concerns me the most is one province sandwiched in between three others can dictate to every other Canadian what they want. I say let them go. No backing of the Canadian dollar, no federal moneys for their indigenous peoples or healthcare, no RCMP, no Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian passports and no free trade outside their borders.
Didn’t work so well for the United Kingdom did it?
That exit will mean they are fair game for the US. And nothing will stop Trump if he wants it.
While Carney was the advisor to Trudeau and that Liberal government he now says that advice he gave was wrong. He claims to still have the Paris Accord targets top of his agenda but in the same breath he shrugs them off by saying Canada will have higher emissions. It seems Carney talks with a forked tongue, speaking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. It is all designed to confuseCanadians into thinking he knows what he is doing when it seems clear, from the state of our economy under his reign, that he has no clue as to how to manage an economy. No deal in sight with the USA and more bad news about recession on the horizon. Carney just isn’t who you think he is.
C*rnhole Carney is a f*scist pipe dreamer. There is a whole lot more wrong with this country than energy.
These Liberal swine have decimated and divided this country on many fronts! Time for the Liberals to be shut down! Trudeau should be banned from the country and Carney sent back to the EU.
Ironic that the liberals’ own corruption has made them so desperate that they are now forced to drop the climate change scam.
it will unite Canada but we will have to stick it deeper in your ass to do it.
No, it will not unify the country.
You utterly disgraceful people are jeopardizing 1-12% (depending on a scenario based analysis) of GDP, for the 0.68% of GDP the dairy monopoly our government says must stay intact.
That is a parasitic dairy market if thats what their lobbyists think is appropriate and its a parasitic government that would agree to it.
I think any groups that face mass layoffs, bankruptcy or homelessness due to a failure to negotiate a deal over milk should be sued into oblivion.
Just think, if you are currently unemployed or facing financial hardship as a result of our disintegrating trade with the US…it’s the milk in your fridge that put you there…
Or, for the rational, it is the Carney Liberals that put you there over spilled milk.
No, this won’t unite the country as most of us don’t believe anything will get built. The carbon capture program is about to be scrapped. Those disinformation PSA’s from the LPC should stop as they are clearly lying. I’m guessing truth in advertising was halted about 11 years ago.
I deeply care about the environment and believe in climate change. The issue is that the climate is changing in a short period of time, unlike in the past, so ecosystems, etc. can’t adapt. However, we are under existential threat from the US. Therefore, we need to be pragmatic, not idealistic.
Our emissions should not be capped, we live in arguably the most environmentally friendly country in the world. Even the standards we had before the liberals came into power were second to none.
Let the oil flow, lets fill our pockets, create generational wealth so our children can prosper. And lets stop with the climate extremism and terrorism. Its a well known fact that without CO2 life would cease to exsist.