Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

Powering Canada Past Coal - Ep45: Catherine McKenna

Jun 9, 2021

Canadian politician Catherine McKenna discusses the clean energy transition and infrastructure investments for economic growth. Topics include implementing a carbon price policy, empowering women in climate action, and navigating political strategies for climate initiatives. McKenna also shares insights on overcoming sexism in advocacy and the hopeful prospects for environmental leadership at COP26.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Driving Climate Action Through Government Collaboration and Infrastructure Investments

02:18 • 8min

Empowering Women in Climate Action

10:42 • 7min

Implementing a Carbon Price Policy in Canada

17:36 • 18min

Navigating Political Strategies for Climate Action

35:53 • 15min

Overcoming Sexism and Pushback in Climate Advocacy

51:14 • 5min

Hopeful Discussion on Environmental Leadership and COP26

56:39 • 2min

Catherine McKenna is a Canadian Liberal politician serving as the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities since 2019. Before that she was the Minister of Environment and Climate Change for 4 years.

Her ministerial mandate includes ensuring infrastructure investments support just economic growth and the clean energy transition. Her ministerial mandate includes, inter alia, delivering of “accessible affordable, active and zero-emissions transit options”, “investing in large-scale building retrofits and clean power” and “continuing to close the infrastructure gap in Indigenous communities, particularly with respect to affordable housing”.

Before taking the infrastructure and communities portfolio, Catherine was in charge of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. She was appointed just before COP21 in Paris and played a significant role during the summit.

Catherine is a lawyer by education: she co-founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad, now called Level, a charity through which Canadian lawyers are able to work on pro bono cases around the world. She has also worked in leading Canadian and Indonesian law firms and was a negotiator with the United Nations mission in East Timor.

Catherine holds degrees from the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and McGill University’s Faculty of Law. A mom of three, avid swimmer and canoeist, Minister McKenna is a long-time resident of the Glebe in Ottawa.