Climate Change Inaction in Canada: Political Subsystems and Policy Outcomes in the Oil & Gas Industry, 1999-2019

Despite increasing urgency of the climate crisis, Canada is unlikely to meet its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement. The expansion of the countrys fossil fuel industry is one of the main causes for Canadas emissions. Consequently, recent studies have adopted a policy network approach to outline the relationship between the federal government and the fossil fuel industry to explain the countrys inaction. However, the relationship between this network and actual policy outcomes remains unclear. Hence, this study determines the extent to which climate and energy policy change applied by the federal and Alberta provincial governments reflect the interests of the fossil fuel industry. The main findings point to the fossil fuel industry having had substantial political influence on climate and energy policy decisions over the last twenty years, although its influence has been increasingly contested over time. However, this network remains influential in Canadian politics.