Abreu Departs Net-Zero Advisory Body as Carney Government Hemohrrages Climate Expertise

Another member of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB) resigned today, bringing to three the number of world-class climate policy advisors the Carney government has lost in the space of a week.

On Tuesday, as The Energy Mix first reported this morning, University of British Columbia climate scientist Simon Donner resigned as NZAB co-chair. Today, he was followed out the door by climate diplomacy veteran Catherine Abreu, director of the International Climate Politics Hub.

Last Thursday, the sweeping memorandum of understanding signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith prompted the resignation of Canadian identity minister and lifelong climate advocate Steven Guilbeault, an encyclopedic source of climate and energy expertise and one of the few people in the world who’ve attended all 30 United Nations climate conferences.

NZAB was established in 2021 under the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act “to engage with Canadians and give independent advice on how Canada can achieve its goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” its website states. Its reports and recommendations to government are meant to focus on “concrete solutions that the Government of Canada should implement to ensure that Canada benefits from a carbon-neutral global economy, accelerates the achievement of a carbon-neutral economy, and generates clean prosperity for generations to come.”

Reversing a ‘Hard-Won Downward Trend’

In her letter of resignation today, Abreu connected her decision back directly to Carney government policies.

“There is no question the hard-won downward trend in Canadian greenhouse gas emissions will be reversed by the current government’s ‘Climate Competitiveness Strategy’, which suspends, delays, and dismantles climate policy with no alternative measures in place,” she wrote. “New major oil and gas projects, as proposed in the new MOU with Alberta, will use Canadian taxpayer dollars to grow what is already the largest and least controlled source of climate pollution in the country.”

She added that the One Canadian Economy Act (Bill C-5), the enabling legislation for the federal Major Projects Office, “gives cabinet extraordinary powers to approve projects even when they violate Indigenous rights and title, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent.” Those decisions will put Canada’s 2030 climate goal out of reach and make it “highly unlikely” that the country will hit its 2035 target.

Yet “at no point has the expert advice of Canada’s legislated advisory body been sought or considered in these decisions.”

That point was not inconsistent with the government’s statutory duty to consult NZAB on emission reduction targets and plans, Abreu told The Mix in an interview Thursday evening.

“There’s a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. and the spirit of the law is around transparency and consultation,” she said. “Our terms of reference say we can weigh in on matters the Minister refers to us for advice, and previous ministers have asked us for advice on major climate decisions and pieces of policy, like the oil and gas emissions cap and how to close the gap to the 2030 target.”

In the immediate aftermath of the April 28 federal election, “I think most of us on NZAB could understand that there wasn’t communication as the government was organizing itself,” she added. “But then a series of very impactful decisions were made around Canada’s approach to climate change, and those decisions were made without consultation of Canada’s legislated climate advisory body,” a choice that “I felt was a contravention of the requirements of that legislation.”

Beyond the deep expertise on NZAB, Abreu said, “it’s an advisory body, but it’s also Canadians. All of these decisions have been made without consultation of anybody, except that we’ve seen the lobbying records of who this government has been talking to.”

[Disclosure: Catherine Abreu is chair of the Energy Mix Productions Development Committee.]

Government Priorities Changed

Donner and Abreu had both been members of the panel from the beginning, with Donner signing on because “I was told it was important to have a climate scientist involved to help ensure the government receives advice based on the best available science,” he wrote on LinkedIn around 5 PM PT Wednesday.

Donner resigned from his post Tuesday “with a heavy heart,” he said.

“The structure and governance of the NZAB, as set out in the legislation, was never ideal,” he explained. “But the situation became more difficult this year as the government, and its priorities, changed. I was comfortable chairing an appointed body whose advice is considered but ultimately rejected—after all, no one elected us. I was not comfortable with the process becoming neglected or performative, and it had begun to feel that way to me.”

Donner did not respond to a request for comment. But in June, he scorched the PM for defying basic science after he declared his government’s definition of “nation-building” projects might include “decarbonized” oil.

“There is no such thing as decarbonized oil and gas,” Donner said at the time. “Oil contains carbon. It is high school chemistry. And [it emits] carbon dioxide when they’re used.”

Donner added: “The government is going to embarrass itself by using such industry and marketing speak.”

6 Members Down, 4 Remaining

This week’s resignations bring the number of departures from NZAB to six so far this year, leaving the organization with only four members and no chair.

Carney’s media office did not respond to a late afternoon email asking how the NZAB will function with its remaining members, whether or how soon new members will be appointed, and whether the government has any concern over the loss of three of the world’s top climate policy advisors. All four of the remaining members are staying put, at least so far, but two of them are putting the government on notice that it has to do better:

• Michael Bernstein, president and CEO of Clean Prosperity, is remaining.

• Concordia University climate scientist Damon Matthews, who joined NZAB in March, is remaining.

• Karen Ross, executive director of Farmers for Climate Solutions, is remaining, but possibly not for long.

• Independent consultant Robert Hornung, former founding executive director of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, is remaining “at this time.”

Bernstein said the resignations will be “challenging”, but will present an “opportunity to look more broadly at what the most effective role would be for the NZAB.” On LinkedIn last week, he praised the MOU for focusing on carbon pricing rather than regulation, adding that a credit value of $130 per tonne will “unlock 70 Mt of GHG reductions,” according to forthcoming research by his organization, more than triple the impact of the Clean Electricity Regulations the government has traded away.

In the hours before the MOU was signed, Guilbeault warned Carney’s top advisors that losing those regulations would cost hundreds of megatonnes of emission reductions, and an industrial carbon price would only deliver the equivalent impact at $400 to $500 per tonne. Meanwhile, Smith’s chief of staff Rob Anderson began walking back the carbon pricing commitment within hours of the MOU signing.

Ross’ and Hornung’s decisions to stay were both a lot more conditional than Bernstein’s and Matthews’.

“I currently remain a member of the NZAB,” Ross told The Mix in an email. “I believe strongly in the importance of an independent body of experts providing advice on climate targets and plans. That said, there have been structural, governance, and consultation limitations with the NZAB for a long time, and these have been compounded more recently. I will only remain a member if these problems can be resolved quickly.”

Ross said the government’s “recent policy announcements have significantly changed our potential to come close to 2030 and 2035 targets, and the NZAB was not consulted on these decisions despite their implications on the Net-Zero Accountability Act within which the NZAB is established.” The Advisory Body “cannot be effective with just four members, and without predictable and sufficient resources,” she added, but “there has been an unreasonable delay in appointments of new members for a long time now,” including members who bring Indigenous perspectives.

Hornung said he still believes the NZAB “can play an important role and provide significant value to the government as it develops and implements climate policy.” However, the advisory body “has not had a meaningful opportunity to play such a role with the current government. My hope is that the government will be open to redefining its relationship with the NZAB and ensuring that it has the membership and resources required to fulfill its legislated mandate.”

He told The Mix he “will not hesitate to revisit this in the absence of any substantive progress to address these concerns.”

Climate policy veteran and Re.Climate Senior Advisor Louise Comeau, who was not reappointed earlier this year when her term on NZAB ended, told The Mix the latest departures “are long overdue. The remaining members need to consider whether or not NZAB is worth their precious time,” and “the government owes them the respect of fixing its structural problems, and being willing to take advice.”

Comeau added that “NZAB can’t function with four members. It is an embarrassment. The government should be honest that it does not want external, informed, and thoughtful advice. The government also clearly has no interest in complying with its own law” on net-zero emissions accountability.

Cover photo:  Photos Simon Donner CC BY-NC 2.0/flickr (l), Catherine Abreu/Destination Zero