Canada's new climate approach under Prime Minister Mark Carney is taking shape with a major carbon capture deal and a new West Coast pipeline. The Pathways carbon capture project, backed by five major oilsands firms, the Alberta government, and Ottawa, has been scaled back significantly from original 2021 commitments. The alliance now targets 16 metric tonnes of annual emissions reductions by 2045, down from an earlier plan of roughly 68 Mt. Meanwhile, the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline could add 10-12 Mt of net upstream emissions per year, raising questions about whether the two policies offset each other. The shift marks a clear departure from the previous government's regulatory approach. Ottawa withdrew the proposed oil and gas emissions cap but kept the 50% federal CCUS investment tax credit, stacked with Alberta support. Carney has said emissions will be higher in the near term under this plan. The article also covers global sustainable debt issuance hitting a five-year high, retired EV batteries getting second lives as grid storage, and six energy transition trends triggered by geopolitical conflicts. For anyone tracking Canadian climate policy, this piece lays out the tension between enabling pipeline growth and delivering on net-zero by 2050. The Pathways project is now sized to what's deliverable now, not what the 2050 target requires. Whether that's a slower road to the same destination or a quiet exit remains an open question.
