The Biggest Risk of Canada’s Net-Zero Strategy? Not Reaching Net-Zero

This article was originally published in The Globe and Mail, March 17, 2022.

By: Perrin Beatty, Heather Chalmers and Matthew Wetmore

Perrin Beatty is president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Heather
Chalmers is president and CEO of GE Canada. Matthew Wetmore is national managing partner of industries and regions at PwC Canada.

CANADA’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY IS CONCERNED ABOUT THE COUNTRY’S PLAN FOR NET ZERO – BUT NOT FOR REASONS YOU MAY THINK.

As members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Net-zero Council, which brings together more than 20 businesses that have committed to decarbonize their operations by 2050 or sooner, business leaders from across all sectors of Canadian industry are voicing their biggest concern: Canada’s progress to net-zero may falter unless we recognize and work with different perspectives and regional priorities.

We must learn from past challenges and our lack of success (Canada has yet to meet any of its climate commitments) to achieve net-zero. Our country needs a practical, principled, yet
flexible approach to emissions reductions that recognizes domestic and global
opportunities for climate leadership. And the private sector must also do its part.

To support Canada’s path to net-zero, we believe that the federal government needs four
key principles in its 2030 emissions-reduction plan.

  1. Canada’s climate and economic plans must be tightly coupled
  2. Canada’s climate plan must consider net-zero in a global context
  3. Private sector investment will not occur without pragmatic, predictable
    policies
  4. Canada needs an orderly transition to net-zero
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