Trudeau, Biden and their apparent love-hate relationship with oil

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

Just a few hours before flying to Glasgow for his first United Nations climate conference as U.S. president, Joe Biden had oil on his mind.

He was lobbying OPEC members and other countries around the world to urgently turn on the taps and pump out much more crude.

Then, less than 24 hours later, Biden was on stage at the conference in Glasgow, imploring the world to take decisive action on climate change, meet ambitious emissions reduction targets and commit significant dollars to help poor countries adapt to a changing environment.

It seems odd, contradictory and no doubt sprinkled with a touch of hypocrisy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself in a similar spot — using his speech on Day 1 of COP26 in Scotland to boast about Canada's climate record and encouraging other countries to follow suit. Yet Canada is one of the largest oil-producing nations in the world and a heavy emitter.

Alberta is currently pumping out a record level of oil every day, and the output is expected to keep climbing. More export pipeline space and multi-year high prices are reason enough to encourage the industry to boost output.

For both leaders, there is much more nuance to their relationship with crude than that two-faced perception.

Biden wants more oil to provide relief at the pumps. Gasoline and diesel prices are high and continuing to climb, fuelling inflation woes in the United States and Canada.

"I do think that the idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not ... right," Biden said Sunday night to journalists in Rome following the G20 leaders' summit.

For Trudeau, the oilpatch is a key economic driver as one of Canada's top exports (and likely in the No. 1 spot with surging prices in recent months). 

Both leaders have also set goals to significantly decrease the level of greenhouse gases in their respective countries — with the U.S. aiming to slash emissions by 50 to 52 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, while Canada's goal is to cut emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels over the same period.

"Biden's comments are not helping," said Eddy Pérez, international climate diplomacy manager with Ottawa-based Climate Action Network Canada.

"It really impacts the ability of the United States to influence countries like China and India and Brazil to do more."