Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there’s little Canada can do on its own to reduce inflation, lower interest rates, clear supply chain bottlenecks, address airport chaos and end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine because these problems require global solutions.
While the PM often uses this as a dodge in an attempt to avoid responsibility for his own decisions which do have economic consequences for Canadians — such as his massive deficit spending — we agree with him, up to a point.
It is true that these issues are what are known as “wicked” problems.
That means they are difficult and even impossible to solve because they are complex, inter-connected, expensive to remedy and because addressing one of them can make the others worse.
The problem with Trudeau’s logic is that there is one wicked problem his government insists it can effectively address on its own — climate change, by reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
But effectively addressing climate change requires global solutions and addressing it can make other wicked problems worse.
For example, because much of Europe, and particularly Germany, failed to take steps to ensure their own energy security in their bid to lower their greenhouse gas emissions, they increasingly relied on natural gas and oil from Russia.
So now, much of Europe is attempting to solve two wicked problems simultaneously, where one makes the other worse.
That is, simultaneously supplying Ukraine with weapons to help it defend itself from Putin’s invasion, while financing Putin’s invasion by buying desperately needed supplies of natural gas and oil from Russia.
Lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Canada is a wicked problem that has a negative impact on our economy and is much more symbolic rather than effective, since we’re responsible for about 1.5% of global emissions and the problem must be addressed globally.
And right now, reducing emissions on a global scale is simply not a global priority.
So much so that last year global emissions were higher than ever before, surpassing the significant drop in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when the demand for fossil fuel energy dropped dramatically.
Trudeau and the Liberals should tell Canadians the truth — that reducing emissions is a wicked problem requiring global solutions hat Canada cannot address on its own.
Post a Comment