This series treats climate policy as a governance and spending question — not a climate debate. The analysis examines whether specific policy instruments are cost-efficient, distributionally fair, and designed to hold public support over time. The same framework is applied here that The Receipts applies to every policy domain: facts labeled as facts, interpretation labeled as interpretation, falsifiers always present.
Part 1The Net Zero Reckoning
Canada contributes 1.4% of global emissions and has legislated one of the world's most aggressive climate mandates. India's emissions grew by more than 20% of Canada's entire annual output in a single year. This is a proportionality audit — not of whether climate change is real, but of whether the response is calibrated to the problem Canada can actually solve.
Part 2
Green for Whom
$102.7 billion in investment tax credits accessible only to corporations. $43.6 billion for three EV battery plants. One federal audit found a $523 cost per tonne of emissions reduced. Meanwhile, households pay higher energy costs and can access none of the main spending programs. The incidence audit: who writes the cheque and who cashes it.
Part 3
How to Lose the Climate
The carbon tax is gone. The EV mandate is cancelled. Every interim target has been missed. This is how poorly designed, regressive, institutionally captured climate policy doesn't just fail to reduce emissions — it generates the political conditions under which any serious climate policy becomes impossible. The trust collapse, and what it would take to avoid it.
Series note: This series covers net-zero policy as a governance, spending, and accountability question — not a debate about whether climate change is real or whether Canada should act. The analysis examines whether specific policy instruments are cost-efficient, who bears the costs, who receives the benefits, and whether the institutional framework governing the spending meets basic transparency and conflict-of-interest standards. The same analytical framework used here is applied to every subject on this site regardless of party or policy domain.