Canadian senator calls for climate integrity, warns against fossil fuel expansion
Senator Rosa Galvez says Canada and Australia must move beyond fossil fuels, not just manage emissions, to achieve genuine prosperity.
SYDNEY — Canadian Senator Rosa Galvez says Canada and Australia must stop expanding fossil fuel production and focus on genuine economic transformation to meet climate commitments.
Galvez made the remarks in a speech at the Climate Integrity Summit 2026 in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 15, according to an article she published in the Guardian.
"Expanding renewables while continuing to expand fossil fuels is not a transition, it is addition," Galvez said. "Every extra tonne of greenhouse gas warms the planet, no matter how sophisticated our accounting becomes."
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She said both major fossil fuel exporting nations face the same "defining question" of how to move beyond fossil fuels without sacrificing prosperity or nature.
The challenge, she argued, is not technological but one of governance.
"Canada and Australia have focused on reducing emissions from fossil fuels while avoiding the harder conversation about reducing our dependence on them," Galvez said. "That distinction matters. It determines whether we are managing decline or genuinely transforming our economies."
She noted Australia has started a shift to renewable energy, while "Canada is late to it."
The debate is active in Australia, where parliament is reviewing reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism, the country's main industrial emissions framework.
The central question is whether major emitters should meet obligations by buying carbon offsets instead of cutting emissions on site, a debate Canada has also faced regarding carbon capture and offset markets.
Galvez said offsets and carbon capture have a limited role for genuinely hard-to-abate emissions only and "should never excuse delaying the transformation science tells us is unavoidable."
"Climate integrity means being honest about the gap between emissions reduced on paper and emissions reduced in the atmosphere," she said.
She pointed to research questioning whether offset credits are truly additional and noted Canada's own wildfires have shown forests are not permanent carbon stores.
On finance, Galvez said Australia's science-based Sustainable Finance Taxonomy offers lessons, while Canada has pursued mandatory climate disclosures.
Through her proposed Climate-Aligned Finance Act, she is seeking to align Canadian financial markets with climate commitments.
"Sustainable finance only works when it reflects science, not political compromise," she said.
Galvez said climate action cannot be separated from biodiversity loss, inequality or reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and tackling them together produces more resilient solutions.
She said Australia's integration of Indigenous safeguards into its finance framework offers Canada real lessons, while Canada's parliamentary oversight may offer something in return.
"Neither country has the perfect model, and legislation on both sides remains fragmented," she said.
She argued the transition should be seen as an opportunity, with leading countries channeling investment into innovation and building economies within planetary limits.
"We have the capacity to lead," Galvez said. "What remains to be seen is whether we have the political courage to make our climate commitments more than declarations."
"Climate integrity is ultimately a question of trust: whether citizens believe governments and industries will align decisions with the science they publicly accept," she said. "Trust may be our most valuable national resource."
Galvez represents the Bedford division of Quebec in the Senate.