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Given that the federal Liberal government has earmarked more than $200 billion of taxpayers’ money to fight climate change, how effective has all that spending been?

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The answer is that it has been a financial disaster for Canadians when one considers the primary purpose of the spending, which is to lower Canada’s annual output of industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

We’ll never get to the bottom of what happened if Mark Carney and the Liberals win the April 28 election because nothing short of a forensic audit will ever get to the truth.

To cite just one example of what’s been going on, an investigation last year by auditor general Karen Hogan of the now-disbanded, $1-billion Sustainable Development Technology Fund, which audited just a sampling of the projects it funded, found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest rules were not followed in awarding $76 million worth of government contracts and 10 cases where $56 million was awarded to ineligible projects.

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A report by federal environment commissioner Jerry DeMarco following an audit of the Liberals’ Net Zero Emissions Accountability Act last year concluded the government’s lack of transparency made it impossible for the average citizen to understand, much less believe, its claim it will reduce Canada’s emissions by 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030, ostensibly the way to net zero by 2050.

The government said the 149 measures contained in its strategy administered by 13 different government departments will achieve a 36.2% reduction in emissions compared to 2005 levels by 2030, close to the minimum target of 40%.

But that’s nonsense based on DeMarco’s finding that to achieve the 40% minimum target will require massive decreases in annual emissions in the next five years which would cripple Canada’s economy and which the Liberal government has come nowhere close to achieving in the past decade.

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As of 2023, the latest year for which government data are available, Canada’s emissions were 8.5% below 2005 levels.

That means the Liberal government has achieved just 21.25% of its minimum target after eight years in power (2015 to 2023) and must achieve the remaining 78.75% in the seven years between 2023 and 2030.

Canada’s emissions in 2005 were 759 million tonnes (Mt), meaning the Liberals’ target for 2030 is 455 Mt annually.

To meet that, Canada would have to cut current emissions — 694 Mt annually, based on the latest government data — by 239 Mt in 2030.

That’s the equivalent of eliminating all annual emissions from Canada’s transportation sector (157 Mt) and buildings sector (83 Mt) in seven years.

To reach the government’s interim target of reducing emissions to 20% below 2005 levels in 2026 would require an emission cut of 87 Mt by next year, more than all emissions from Canada’s heavy industry sector in 2023 (78.3 Mt).

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When DeMarco’s auditors examined 20 of the government’s 149 measures to reduce emissions, they found only nine were on track to achieve their goals.

Of 32 additional measures the government claimed would help boost reductions from 36.2% to at least 40% in 2030,  only seven were new.

The audit found cases where two different government programs were funding the same projects and reporting the same expected emission reductions, raising the possibility of double-counting.

DeMarco said Canada was the worst performer at lowering emissions among the G7 nations, including the U.S., which, unlike Canada, has never imposed a national carbon tax and has reduced emissions at almost double the rate of Canada.

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