OTTAWA — Former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has accused the Carney government of having abandoned its climate policies altogether, going so far as to say that even the Trump administration in the US will do a better job than Canada at tackling climate change.Guilbeault made the comments Friday at the UN climate conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. He made the remarks independently of the Government of Canada."In fact President Trump's administration will do better in the fight against climate change than Canada," Guilbeault said.The former Liberal cabinet minister took issue with Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin's assertions that Canada is still on track to meet its targets under the Paris Agreement."On the way to the UN meeting in Turkey, the Environment Minister was making the claim that we were still on track to meet our Paris targets. That's not the case at all," Guilbeault said."Over the past year and a half we've ditched a number of initiatives which would have allowed us either to hit those targets or at least to get very, very close to them.".Guilbeault said the government had to turn around its environmental policies."We need to course correct. This is absolutely too important. Too many things are at stake."The criticism comes as Dabrusin leads Canada's official delegation at COP31, where Ottawa has been actively promoting its climate financing commitments and efforts to scale up clean electricity production.The government has reiterated that Canada is on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.Guilbeault's comments directly rebut the Government's assessment of its progress toward meeting those targets.He made his comparison with the Trump administration without any supporting emissions figures in the recorded remarks.
