Responding to the proposed Assessment Framework on Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Elizabeth May

Liberals promised to eliminate subsidies to fossil fuels, but so did Harper in 2009. Instead, we have increased subsidies to LNG - as if it wasn't a fossil fuel. So the government claims it cannot figure out where the subsidies are.

I recently made a submission to the Economic Analysis Directorate at Environment and Climate Change Canada following the release of a discussion document for an assessment framework of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

In my submission, I point out that although it is vital for Canada to meet its commitment to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, the proposed framework lacks the stringency needed now – 10 years after the G20 meeting where subsidies were first discussed, five years after the Paris Agreement, and one year since the findings of the IPCC special report warning about the dangers of exceeding a 1.5 degrees C global temperature increase.

My principal recommendation is that the department reconfigure this assessment tool so that any measure which hinders Canada’s pathway to 1.5 degrees C is considered an inefficient subsidy to phase out by 2025 at the latest.

Read my full submission, attached.