Can Carney’s climate plan keep his grand bargain alive

opinion

Mark Carney speaks during the Canada 2020 Net-Zero Leadership Summit in Ottawa in April, 2023. The Prime Minister's government is likely to kill the proposed emissions cap on the oil and gas sector.

There are two things Mark Carney needs from the climate plan his government will release next week: distance from Justin Trudeau and a way to keep his grand bargain alive.

The grand bargain is the phrase used by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to describe the possibility that the Prime Minister will back plans for a new oil pipeline if the industry backs carbon-reduction initiatives, in particular the Pathways Alliance carbon-capture project.

In a broader sense, all of Mr. Carney’s climate policy has amounted to a promise of a grand bargain: that both oil-and-gas development and cl