OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday his government has to pivot from his predecessor's environmental policy because the country needs to capitalize on its immense oil and gas reserves, due to heightened geopolitical uncertainty and economic sluggishness.
Furthermore, Carney said Canadian climate-change policy needs to be a collective effort, and not a divisive force that pushes people in resource-rich Alberta toward separation.
Carney's remarks were in an address to Canadians via a YouTube post, days before the Alberta government is scheduled to unveil its formal proposal plan for a new pipeline to ship about one million barrels a day of crude oil to the Pacific coast - where it would be loaded onto tankers bound for Asian buyers.
Carney's bid to accelerate resource projects and potentially back new crude-carrying pipelines prompted the resignation of Canada's former environment minister from politics. Carney's predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made the fight against climate change a policy priority, upsetting citizens and business leaders in commodity-rich Alberta.
Alberta politicians contend Trudeau's policies thwarted economic development in the province, and has helped provide momentum toward a separation movement in Alberta. The province will hold a referendum on Oct. 19 about whether to proceed with a formal vote on separating from Canada.
"The climate plan we inherited from the previous government was well-intentioned and well-suited for the times," Carney said in a YouTube video. "We can't afford to restrain the growth of an important part of our energy mix, oil and gas, to meet a short-term" environmental goal.
Carney has already reversed some of Trudeau's environmental policies, such as a cap on carbon emissions from the oil-and-gas sector.
The changes underway "will mean that our [carbon] emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government's plan," Carney said. "But in my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term. It would have been too expensive for Canadians, Canadians who are already struggling with affordability."
The shift prompted Canada's former environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, to step down as a cabinet minister late last year, and from politics last month. "I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to pursue my fight for environmental protections and the fight against climate change in a different way," Guilbeault said.
In his YouTube post, Carney said Canada would aim to produce oil and gas "in the most environmentally sustainable ways, and export them to where they will make a difference." Carney has said his government's approval for Alberta's proposed new crude-oil pipeline is contingent on the construction of a carbon-capture and storage project that oil companies warn is not financially feasible without sizable taxpayer-backed support.
The Canadian leader also warned the fallout from the conflict in Iran, which drove crude-oil prices sharply higher, "will be with us for a long time." Carney said Canada stands to benefit from uncertainty about energy supply, and the possibility of future disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Carney's main policy priority has focused on a rewiring of a Canadian economy that leaned too heavily on trade with the U.S. to drive growth. Carney has argued that trade-policy uncertainty in the White House and hefty U.S. tariffs on key Canadian industrial sectors compels a shift to build out new trade corridors to sell more Canadian-made goods to Asia and Europe.
Carney added the previous environmental plan would "have been too divisive for our country. In the current environment, the old plan was an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart, both at home and from abroad."
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 30, 2026 14:32 ET (18:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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