Blaine Higgs’s big picture: Carbon tax alternative a non-starter?

But any province that wants to put forward a similarly similarly robust way to fight climate change, but do it in a way that works for them is more than welcome to But the but the bigger picture with all this as well is how how what an impact the actual country can have on world emissions. The Blaine Higgs bigger picture, his carbon tax alternative goes like this. Develop natural gas in New Brunswick, ship it to Europe where they can close coal plants and reduce emissions over there to say here we have a country that’s capable of having a major impact worldwide, but but we’re not prepared to have that influence. Where is the where is the evidence to suggest that this kind of Pymus guy idea that he’s put forward with, with no real details, I’ll add, is going to help us reach our our climate goals. Higgs’s idea faces several obstacles both here at home and overseas. I mean, the moratorium was placed here and one of the conditions was you need a social license to be able to move forward on these product, on these projects. Sorry. And we don’t see that yet. There’s also a legal duty to consult Indigenous nations, but they took a pass on a billion dollar gas deal that the premier offered them. And even if we do develop gas here, there are other global challenges. Europe is getting off gas and it’s getting off coal and it’s turning to energy efficiency and renewables. So there’s not really a case that if we export our gas to the EU, it will somehow displace coal use. That isn’t going to happen. Challenge #2 How Canada could get credit for lower emissions overseas. I think that’s a a very good argument. And, and I think we should get carbon credits for having that impact in Europe. And now is that possible to do that under the current regime? I’m I’m not 100% sure. There is no international agreement yet on how to measure emissions reductions in one country and credit them to another country. And even if there were, that raises other complications. I drive a Hyundai electric vehicle. By doing that, I reduce the amount of emissions that take place in Canada because I’m not burning gasoline. Who owns those emissions reductions? According to the logic of the proposal from Premier, South Korea would own those emissions reductions. Do we really want to go there? So the premier’s carbon tax alternative, his bigger picture is not really that clear. And I would love to see if they’ve got better plans. All I wanted to see is emissions go down. And so however we get there, you know, I’m on board for that. I think the bigger picture is looking at our way of life, our quality of life, that our quality and way of life is changing because the climate is changing and we’re not going to be able to pass our way of life down to our kids because of all these changes. So I think that’s the bigger picture that he’s failing to see.