Is the zero-emission vehicle mandate dead or merely sleeping?

Mark Carney’s announcement on Friday that the implementation of the mandate of zero emission vehicles of the federal government will be delayed at least one year can be read as another retirement about the climatic policy of the new Prime Minister.

You can also read as a small victory for conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who had been asking the government to abandon politics.

That was certainly the reading of Poilievre events.

“Today is turned … He finally admitted that conservatives were right, just as we were right in carbon tax,” Pailievre told journalists in Parliament Hill.

But, the conservative leader lamented, it was a “clumsy retreat”, because the prime minister simply promised to “delay” the mandate.

“Mark Carmy can’t even get her right flip flops,” said Poilievre.

In fact, Carney says that Zev’s sales mandate will be subject to a 60 -day review. And so, for now, it is not clear if the mandate, an important policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, is actually dead or simply sleeps.

But deliberations on the mandate, said Carney, will be part of a broader review aimed at designing a new “climatic competitiveness” strategy, on which much, both politically and practically now being driving.

How Zev’s mandate was squeezed

The electric vehicle availability standard, which is known as the ZEV mandate, establishes a series of increasing sales objectives for car manufacturers in Canada. For next year, the goal would have been 20 percent.

As with the federal carbon tax that he discarded in MarchCarney could declare that he inherited a problematic policy. Under the previous prime minister, the federal government allowed its refund of EV consumers to expire in January And that probably contributed to a significant fall in sales. The Minister of the Environment, Julie Dabrusin, said in June that the government was Work in a new refund programBut that may have even more dissucted potential consumers to make immediate purchases.

American tariffs on the automotive sector gave the industry another reason to ask for relief.

It is also fair to note that Canada is not the only country where a new government has decided to play with its existing Zev mandate, in the United Kingdom, a Labor Government Recently modified a mandate That was originally introduced by a conservative government.

But the British government still maintained a mandate in place. When asked on Friday if he would consider completely repealed the Zev mandate in Canada, Carney did not offer a categorical response.

“We are using this as an opportunity, as part of a broader strategy on climatic competitiveness, to analyze all our measures to help reduce greenhouse gases,” he said. “And we will analyze the interactions between the EV mandate, our clean fuel standards, our tax investment credits, our commercial policy, all those elements, because this government focuses is absolutely results.”

Can you keep the mandate?

There may be paths to amend the mandate without abandoning it.

“Today’s announcement of a delay in the application for one year and a broader review of politics can be an opportunity to better meet their most important objectives: giving consumers the option and putting the EVs in the hands of those who wish,” said Joanna Kyriazis de Clean Energy Canada in a Declaration on Friday.

If the lack of incentives or the collection infrastructure is part of what is brought on the path that Canada maintains the rhythm of other countries, the EVs represented 21 percent of the sales of new cars in the European Union last year, which could be more reason for the federal government to double such efforts.

Look | Carney says that the Canadian automotive sector at the beginning of a ‘restructuring’:

Carney says that Canada ‘at the beginning’ of the restructuring of the automotive sector when asked about China Ev tariffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney said that his government is taking a series of measures to increase the ‘climate competitiveness’ of Canada throughout the economy, and that includes a wide ‘restructuring’ of the automotive sector. He said it is too early to say if tariffs would be eliminated in Chinese electric vehicles.

Clean Energy Canada has a series of other suggestions: to give credit to car manufacturers for selling vehicles below $ 40,000 or offering zero interest financing, adopting European security standards to allow the sale of a wide variety of vehicles or, perhaps the most controversial, Under tariffs in Chinese manufacturing EVs.

The Pembina Institute similarly saying Government options include “extending credits for plug -in hybrid vehicles and cargo infrastructure, modestly target adjusting or reassessing tariffs on Chinese manufacturing EVs.”

In his Friday comments, Carney said that the government “would advance new options to bring more and more affordable electric vehicles to Canadians.” But he refused to speculate if that could include the reduction of tariffs in Chinese electric vehicles.

In Parliament Hill, Pailievre said he did not agree with Saskatchewan Scott Moe’s prime minister, who has asked Canada to drop those rates (China’s retaliation rates are punishing the Saskatchewan canola industry).

But while attacked Zev’s mandate, the conservative leader did not say how to reduce the emissions of the Canada transport sector. When asked directly on Friday what would, Pailievre replied saying that he would aim to help other countries reduce their emissions.

What will the Carney climate strategy include?

Carney came to politics with a reputation of – and a history of – Putting your energy and time towards the cause of combating climate change. Until January, it was the UN special envoy on climate action and finance. In his book Values)He wrote extensively about the challenge and on Friday he said that fighting climate change was both a “moral obligation” and an imperative for global competitiveness.

But his first act as Prime Minister was to repeal the consumer carbon tax. Zev’s mandate is now officially under review. And the future of the limit proposed in the emissions of the oil and gas sector is also uncertain.

“More than four months after their choice, and the root of a destructive summer of drought, forest fires and smoke driven by climate change, which affect millions of Canadians, the federal government has provided limited information about its intentions on climatic policy,” said Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Climate Institute, in a Declaration on Friday.

It was unlikely that the implementation of climate policy in Canada once was perfectly direct or without review. And it is still possible to weave an ambitious climatic agenda without policies such as a carbon tax or a limit of oil and gas emissions.

Carney has said that it would maintain and improve the carbon price reference points for industrial emissions and one of the criteria guiding the selection of the Government of Infrastructure Projects of “Construction of the Nation” is “contribution[ing] to clean growth and meet Canada’s objectives with respect to climate change. ”

But the Formation of a “Caucus Environment” Within the liberal parliamentary caucus it could be an indication of the pressure that could be building in Carney to indicate not only what policies of the Trudeau era wants to adjust, but what type of climatic policies will define their own government.