Friends of Science Challenges Bank of Canada Governor for Ignoring Threat of CBAM and Carbon Taxes to Canadian Businesses

CALGARY, AB, Oct. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - In response to a speech given by Governor Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Sept. 23, 2025, Friends of Science Society have issued an open letter to him, challenging Macklem's claims that Canadians just have to "roll up their sleeves."  The presentation to the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership and the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce explored the shifting multi-polar nature of global trade, but did not reflect the realities facing Canadian businesses, Friends of Science Society claimed, including the impending risk of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and renewed carbon taxes.

In a Jan. 30, 2025, press release, Friends of Science Society advised Canadians that the federal government was pushing for alignment with the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).  Former federal public servant and diplomat, Robert Lyman, had warned at the time that such a move would be seen as "a red flag to the Trump administration bull."   Likewise, CBAM requires a price on carbon as well as onerous, expensive, double-verified emissions reporting.  In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney zero-ed the consumer facing carbon tax once in office, but he did not cancel it.

On Sept. 30, 2025, just days after Macklem's presentation, CNBC reported that global trade would be shaken up when the world's first carbon border tax goes live in the European Union on Jan. 01, 2026.

Another key point of contention is that Macklem has been quick to frame the current tariff issues with the US as a "trade war" but neither he nor the Bank of Canada have ever recognized the ~30 year-long foreign and domestic-funded Tar Sands Campaign against the Alberta oil sands, which has done significant reputational and economic damage to all of Canada.  The Tar Sands Campaign green trade war is documented in Friends of Science Society's 2019 report "Fear and Loathing; The Alberta Oil Sands – from national pride to international pariah."

Retired energy economist, Robert Lyman, also criticized Macklem's speech in a commentary titled "Elbows Up and Roll Up Your Sleeves," posted on Friends of Science Society's blog.

As UK energy analyst Tammy Nemeth writes in a Real Clear Energy article of Oct. 1, 2025, the EU is also imposing strict corporate emissions reporting guidelines, known as Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, or "CS3D."  Nemeth points out that, "The promise of CS3D was always predicated on the notion that Europe, and multinational businesses, could afford to bear the cost of being the world's climate conscience."

As BBC reported on Oct. 1, 2025, at the "Raising Hopes" conference at Castel Gondolfo near Rome, Pope Leo XIV condemned climate change critics, as participants celebrated the 10^th anniversary of "Laudato Si," written by Pope Francis, creating climate change as a centerpiece of Catholic concerns. 

An Oct. 13, 2023, report by the Heritage Foundation indicates that 80% of solar panels made in China involve slave labour; China is the dominant producer of solar panels.

Roger Pielke, Jr. and Justin Ritchie have shown that over 15 years RCP 8.5 and other pathways climate scenarios have been misused.  This has led people to believe there is a climate emergency, when that is not true, says Friends of Science Society.

In the Open Letter to Governor Macklem, as shown by Ken Gregory, Friends of Science Society's research director, when properly calculated, the Social "Cost" of Carbon (which is used to set carbon taxes), actually becomes a Social "Benefit" of Carbon.  Rather than a staggering $800/t Shadow Price on Carbon for Net Zero 2050, as outlined by the NGFS, "…the SCC is calculated by FUND to be about US-$13.07 per tonne CO2 at a 3% discount rate and about US-$7.28 per tonne CO2 at a 5% discount rate. That is, CO2 emissions are currently quite net beneficial. This finding is significantly different from the estimates used by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and calls into question virtually all of the expenditures made by governments and industry in Canada to reduce emissions."

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Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens that is celebrating its 23^rd year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).
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SOURCE Friends of Science Society