Canada won’t be swayed from carbon moves by U.S., Trudeau says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will press ahead with policies aimed at cutting carbon emissions regardless of any U.S. retreat from anti-climate-change measures under President-elect Donald Trump.

Canada, which currently sends almost all its energy exports to the United States, has to structure its economy for the long-term, rather than react hastily to moves by Washington under changing governments, Mr. Trudeau told a Calgary business audience on Wednesday.

Many business leaders in the city, home to the country’s energy industry, have expressed concerns that that pressing ahead with a carbon taxes will hamper competitiveness of Canadian oil in the United States. Alberta’s economy-wide carbon reduction policies take effect next month and most provincial and territorial leaders have endorsed a “pan-Canadian” plan.

“We know that this is the way the world is going, and if the United States wants to take a step back from it, quite frankly, I think we should look at that as an extraordinary opportunity for Canada and for Canadians, an opportunity to draw in investors who are focused on where the profits and the opportunities are going to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now,” Mr. Trudeau told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce crowd of about 1,300.

Last month, he approved two major oil pipelines, including Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans Mountain expansion, which would move Alberta crude to the Pacific Coast, answering the hopes of the energy sector and Alberta government to expand markets beyond the United States. He said at the time that he would not have been able to give the $6.8-billion project a green light without Alberta’s policies on cutting emissions.

Signalling a major divergence from current U.S.-Canadian environmental thinking, Mr. Trump has dismissed concerns about global warming, pledging to pull the United States out of the Paris accord and naming noted climate change skeptics to cabinet posts and other key bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Trudeau said the United States is an important ally and trading partner but also a competitor. In addition, the new administration’s policies may differ from comments that the president-elect made in the campaign and lead-up to his inauguration in January.

“Let’s see what the president actually does once he becomes president and what he says, and let’s not overreact ahead of time. But the challenge of climate change isn’t a debate, or linked to a political ideology. It’s a fact. It’s a fact that we are facing around the world. It’s a reality that we have to adjust to,” Mr. Trudeau told the crowd.

“And it’s a reality that regardless of what might or might not happen at the federal level in the coming years, at the state level, at the municipal level, at the business level across the United States, there’s been tremendous investments, initiatives and forward movement on fighting climate change and being more responsible.”

One initiative Mr. Trump has vowed to proceed with approving TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline to U.S. refineries from Alberta, a contentious proposal that President Barack Obama rejected on environmental grounds following years of study debate.

The Prime Minister said he remains a supporter of the project, and expressed that to Mr. Trump when following the Republican’s election victory in November.

“I look forward to conversations on Keystone XL with the new admin and I’m confident that the right decisions will be taken,” he said.

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