Federalism and the Climate Crisis: Can Climate Action and Intergovernmental Harmony Co-Exist?
The 2023 Fall Mallory Lecture, delivered by Professor Kathryn Harrison (UBC)
This event is free but .
The event will also be livestreamed .
Twenty-five years ago, Kathryn Harrison wrote in Passing the Buck that environmental protection in Canada had been undermined by federal deference to provincial development of natural resources. That norm has been jettisoned in recent years with emergence of a more climate-activist federal government -- resulting in heated federal-provincial conflicts over carbon pricing, environmental assessment, and proposals for a clean electricity standard and oil and gas emissions cap.
In her Mallory Lecture, Harrison will argue that these conflicts reflect the fundamental incompatibility of climate change mitigation and economic reliance on fossil fuels. Canada thus faces a choice between two valued goals: intergovernmental harmony and climate action. While recent policy development suggests the current federal government is more willing than its predecessors to prioritize climate action, federal resolve is being challenged in two ways. The premise that climate action can be reconciled with thriving fossil fuel exports is being tested as growing oil and gas production emissions run up against Canada’s Paris Agreement commitment to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030. In addition, cost of living concerns amplified by populist campaigns by federal and provincial partisans are testing voters’ willingness to pay for climate action -- even as Canada’s forests burn.
Kathryn Harrison is Professor of Political Science and Brenda and David McLean Chair of Canadian Studies at the University of British Columbia. She received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering before completing her PhD in Political Science. Professor Harrison has worked in the oil industry and as a policy analyst for both Environment Canada and the United States Congress. She has served as Senior Associate Dean and Acting Dean in the UBC Faculty of Arts. Harrison has published widely on Canadian and US environmental policy. She is chair of the Expert Advisory Panel on climate mitigation of the Canadian Climate Institute and a member of British Columbia’s Climate Solutions Council.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A and reception.
