Canada faces a widening rift with America over climate change unless it deals with “excessive emissions” from the Alberta tar sands, according to a trusted adviser to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.



John Podesta told the Guardian that Canada must do more to compensate for its exploitation of the carbon intensive tar sands ahead of a critical conference in Paris aimed at reaching an international agreement to fight climate change.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has championed expansion of the controversial tar sands, one of 14 so-called carbon bombs around the globe.

These are vast reserves of fossil fuels that if extracted and burned would make it virtually impossible to keep the earth’s temperature rise to 2C, the limit beyond which would signal irreversible climate change.

In a sign of growing international dismay, Podesta said Canada’s climate change policies were falling short of what is needed ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December.

Podesta, who left the White House earlier this year to run Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, told the Guardian: “I think that there is a C02 premium on oil that is coming out of the oil sands and I think that has to be offset through other policies that they need to implement, or else that is a strategy that is likely to result in excessive emissions.”

He had seen no sign that Canada had a plan to compensate for those extra tar sands emissions.

“I think, and this is my personal view and not the administration’s view – I am not in the administration – I haven’t seen that forthcoming from the Canadians at this particular stage.”

Canada is now the biggest carbon polluter per capita in the world because of the tar sands, which are the third largest reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and up to 4.5 times more carbon intensive.

The Harper government has pledged to more than double current production, driving up greenhouse gas emissions even further.

Harper has lobbied hard to find new routes to market for tar sands oil, championing the Keystone XL, a controversial project to pump crude from Alberta to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, and other pipelines.

The US State Department is in the final stages of reviewing Keystone – after more than six years of delays – and the pipeline has become the most contentious environmental decision facing president Obama.

He has said he will reject Keystone if it worsens climate change.

Harper’s promotion of the oil industry was widely blamed for weak Canadian targets ahead of Paris.

Podesta, who was speaking after an appearance at a UN sustainable energy conference, said it “remains to be seen” whether Canada would meet its 2030 climate targets.

The 2030 targets unveiled earlier this month were less ambitious than Obama’s - and even Canada’s past goals - committing to a 30% cut in emissions from 2005 levels.

But the Canadian government’s own forecast indicates the country will already miss its 2020 target of a 17% emissions cut on 2005 levels, largely because of the tar sands.

The tar sands are the fastest-growing source of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and are expected to account for 80% of Canada’s allowed carbon pollution by 2050under its existing climate commitments, according to research prepared for the City of Vancouver this month.

Harper is up for election in October, and United Nations officials have privately expressed hope of a change of government ahead of Paris.

Alberta embarked on a new era earlier this week, with the installation of Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party, breaking the conservatives’ 44-year lock on power in the province.

“It’s good news for those fighting Keystone,” said Elizabeth May, leader of Canada’s Green Party. Notley has said she will stop the intensive lobbying for the Keystone XL – a decision that gave the White House more cover to reject the project, May said. “It gives President Obama a lot more to work with.”

But Notley is unlikely to curb overall tar sands production, May warned.

“This is not Hugo Chavez. This is a very mainstream political party forming the government in a province where it does not want to declare war on industry,” May said. “It’s important for people outside of Canada to understand that Rachel Notely is not going to be closing down the tar sands or saying no to every pipeline.”

Podesta would not be drawn on the future of the Keystone XL – which is still pending before Obama. However, he cited the finding by the International Energy Agency and other authorities that have said that most of the world’s known oil, gas and coal reserves must stay in the ground to prevent catastrophic climate change.

“If you exploit all of that resource and all of the known proven resources around the world you have a very difficult time hitting that 2C target,” Podesta said.