In 2006, Corporate Knights, an environmental magazine aimed at the business community, assembled a committee of a dozen personalities, including several environmentalists, to determine which of Canada's prime ministers was the most environmentally friendly.
Brian Mulroney was undoubtedly at the top of the list for several reasons. Although he would later reveal some contradictions on the issue of fossil fuels.
If there's a reason the man nicknamed “the little guy from Baie-Comeau” earned that title, it's thanks in large part to his belief in eliminating acid rain. This issue was the great environmental fight of his life, long before he became the country's leader.
“Acid” rain is so called because it is the result of the acidification of precipitation that falls on the ground and in waterways in the form of rain or snow. Gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) turn into acids when they come into contact with water.
When these pollutants reach the ground or water bodies, they have a significant impact on ecosystems. When quantities exceed the capacity of soils and waterways, forests die out – including maple groves in Quebec – and lakes become infested with blue-green algae.
At that time, a very large proportion of the acid rain that fell on Canada came from industrial activity in the American Midwest, where factories and coal-fired power plants were sending these very harmful gases into the atmosphere.
In June 1984, when he was just the leader of the official opposition in Ottawa, Brian Mulroney traveled to Washington to meet with American government officials. Against all odds, he managed to get a brief audience with Ronald Reagan. He decides to use these precious minutes to talk to her about the problem of acid rain. He asked the American President to take action on the matter and encouraged him to negotiate a bilateral treaty to solve the pollution problems.
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Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (left) accompanies American President Ronald Reagan upon his arrival at Quebec airport on March 17, 1985. (Archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada
Despite the good relationship that these two charming and charismatic politicians developed after Mr. Mulroney came to power, Mr. Reagan wants nothing to do with the acid rain problem. His government says there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking pollutant emissions from Midwestern factories to rainfall in Canada and the northeastern United States.
Only when the man who would become Mr. Mulroney's close friend, George Bush Sr., a Republican with a greener heart than his predecessor, took office did the matter resolve itself.
Otherwise nothing would be gained. Mr. Mulroney had to wait until 1991, three years after his American partner came to power, for the two friends to sign the now-famous air quality agreement between Canada and the United States.
The results? Between 1990 and 2020, sulfur dioxide emissions in Canada and the United States fell by 78% and 92%, respectively. For their part, nitrogen dioxide emissions fell by 65% in Canada and by 72% in the United States in the transboundary area covered by the agreement.
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Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney speaks to delegates celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol on Monday, November 20, 2017, in Montreal.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Ryan Remiorz
Ozone layer
In the spring of 1985 the news went around the world. British scientists reveal the presence of a hole in the ozone layer just above the South Pole in the journal Nature. The article has a resounding impact. Overnight, citizens become aware of the threat of such a phenomenon in their daily lives.
The depletion of the ozone layer leads to an increase in ultraviolet rays, which are harmful to living beings on Earth as these rays cause skin cancer in particular. For every 1% decrease in the ozone layer, the incidence of this type of disease increases by 4%.
Shortly after the scientists released this information, the international community mobilized. The aim is to eliminate the gases that are responsible for depleting the ozone layer, the famous chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
In 1987, barely two years after the hole was discovered, Brian Mulroney suggested to the United Nations that Montreal host an international conference. The goal: to reach an agreement to eliminate these gases. This is how the Montreal Protocol came into being on September 16, 1987.
It is a success across the board. The agreement not only allows for a gradual recovery of the ozone layer, but also helps protect the planet's climate. CFCs are also powerful greenhouse gases (GHGs), and their elimination allows for better combating climate change. It is perhaps the most successful international agreement to date, said former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Montreal Protocol is a model of this type because it was designed to be adaptable as scientific knowledge evolves. In 2016, the so-called Kigali Amendment made it possible to include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), gases that are extremely harmful to the climate and are used in refrigerators and air conditioning systems, in the contract. Experts believe that if the agreement is adhered to, global warming could fall by 0.5 °C by 2100.
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Former NASA climatologist James Hansen gave a lecture at the Capitol in Washington in 2008.
Photo: Associated Press / Susan Walsh
Climate… and oil
Building on the success of the conference on the ozone layer and supported by the leadership of then environment minister Tom McMillan, the Mulroney government seized the opportunity and proposed that the United Nations organize the first major world conference in 1988 on the ozone layer and climate, an issue that had remained silent and quietly found his way into political circles.
Chaired by Canadian diplomat Stephen Lewis, the UN conference entitled “The Changing Atmosphere” took place in Toronto in the summer of 1988, just a few days after an event that caused a sensation on the planet: June 23, 1988, as NASA climatologist James Hansen testifies before the US Senate. He presents the results of his work on the connections between the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and warming temperatures.
The expert creates a shockwave. Data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science, which he headed at the time, leave little room for doubt. The greenhouse effect has been recognized and it is already changing our climate, he told the American senators bluntly.
The New York Times and Washington Post will make it their front page.
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James Hansen's lecture made the front pages of several newspapers.
Photo: New York Times Archives
James Hansen's testimony will give great momentum to the Toronto conference.
Brian Mulroney will use this enthusiasm to demand from the international community an international air law that would be modeled on the Montreal Protocol. At his side, Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland proposes the adoption of an international treaty aimed at stabilizing the Earth's atmosphere and preventing further deterioration.
The Toronto conference will pave the way for the major Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, in 1992. This major conference, chaired and masterfully led by Canadian diplomat Maurice Strong, will mark a turning point in protecting the climate and the environment.
Brian Mulroney goes there with his young environment minister, Jean Charest. However, he plays an important role in convincing his friend George Bush Sr. to take part. He questions him about the value of this conference without the presence of the United States, which would encourage him to go, which Mr. Bush does.
In fact, the Rio Summit will give birth to the three major international conventions that have now become the backbone of the international protection of the planet: the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Convention to Combat Desertification.
The Rio Summit launched the COP process on climate change, the aim of which is to enable the negotiation of a global agreement on this issue. COP1 took place in Berlin in 1995 and the first international climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, was concluded in Japan in 1997.
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Brian Mulroney also defended Canada's fossil fuel industry.
Photo: CBC
If Brian Mulroney was convinced of the need to protect the planet's climate, that wouldn't have stopped him from being a major defender of Canada's fossil fuel industry. Between 1988 and 1993, his government paid more than $2.5 billion in subsidies to develop the Hibernia oil platform off the coast of Newfoundland and acquired 8.5% of the project's shares.
In 2016, he supported construction of the Energy East pipeline, which would connect Alberta and New Brunswick and run through Quebec and under the St. Lawrence River to transport Alberta oil to Canada's east coast. The project is ultimately abandoned by the developer.
It would have been interesting to hear Brian Mulroney's commentary on today's environmental issues.
What would he say about the TransMountain pipeline, which will be operational very soon, was purchased by the government at great expense and whose construction costs have exploded?
Would he be against the carbon tax, as Pierre Poilievre, the current leader of the Conservatives, is strongly in favor of?
Would he support stricter regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry?
Would he be in favor of accelerating the expansion of renewable energies to replace fossil fuels? More funding for public transport? To expand nuclear energy? Protect 30% of the country's land and marine areas?
Unfortunately, we will never know the answers to these questions. But without being too mistaken, we can say that Brian Mulroney probably had within him this environmental sensitivity that pushed him to act rather than resist.
He was one of those who was convinced that the word conservatism also contained the word preservation.