Canada's Carney and the climate line of last defense

New Prime Minister faces a quick election, but also a world that has turned on climate finance since 2019

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Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and UN special envoy for climate action, speaking at the 2020 UN Climate Change Conference. Photo: Bank of England.

The first person to breathe a sigh of relief this morning when seeing that Mark Carney will become Canada’s new prime minister was the Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell. As former head of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, Carney brings a central banker’s chops, and head for economics, into the world’s leadership suite at a time of chaos and instability.

The second sigh of relief comes from the global climate finance community, which President Donald Trump has run roughshod over since taking office and which badly needs a leader to take up the sword as global programs get slashed. With markets falling and the U.S. facing a self-induced recession, someone who helped steer the world out of the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 is a welcome change.

Carney won’t have long to make an impact.