County First Global Report
“I’d rather betray the world than let the world betray me.” – Cao Cao
Canada’s climate policy has long been heralded as progressive, principled, and world-leading. But what if the very policies that were meant to protect our planet have been hijacked by a foreign power with no intention of reciprocating the sacrifices we’ve made?
In the wake of testimony in the United States Senate alleging Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the funding of Western climate activism and litigation, it is time Canadians take a sober look at what the global energy transition has meant for Canada’s own strategic interests.
Part I: Follow the Money
Since the early 2010s, foreign foundations with opaque links to overseas governments have played an outsized role in shaping Canada’s environmental agenda. Groups such as the Energy Foundation China, an NGO headquartered in San Francisco but run out of Beijing, have disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars globally to influence climate regulation. According to their own website, the foundation has issued over US$500 million in grants to more than 4,000 projects worldwide—including many in North America.
In Canada, several environmental non-profits and legal clinics have filed lawsuits that target oil sands projects, pipelines, mining operations, and even hydroelectric developments. While much of this litigation is framed as “environmental justice,” it often results in legal paralysis, economic delays, and the chilling of investment in Canadian resource development—precisely in areas where China’s state-owned firms are eager to step in.
The federal government has shown little interest in scrutinizing the source of foreign donations to climate organizations operating domestically, even after a 2019 Senate Committee on Foreign Interference raised red flags.
Part II: Who’s Winning?
While Canada is shutting down power plants and imposing ever-tightening emissions standards on its natural resource sector, China has gone in the opposite direction:
- China burned 92.2 exajoules of coal in 2024, nearly equal to the entire planet’s coal usage in 1995.
- It now consumes over 56% of all global coal output, even while supplying the West with wind turbines, solar panels, EV batteries, and rare earth elements needed for “green” energy.
- Canada, meanwhile, has decommissioned nearly 40% of its thermal power generation capacity in the past 15 years and blocked or stalled major LNG and mining projects due to regulatory and legal opposition.
As of 2025, 80% of the global solar supply chain is controlled by China, and they are quickly consolidating dominance in battery storage, EV manufacturing, and wind turbine production. The result? Canada imports billions of dollars’ worth of “clean tech” from a country that continues to increase its emissions and subsidize fossil fuels.
The asymmetry is jarring. Canadians pay higher taxes and face strict environmental restrictions, while their own pension funds (like CPPIB) invest in Chinese renewables and infrastructure projects—effectively outsourcing the benefits of Canada’s green transition to Beijing.
Part III: Lawfare and Judicial Capture?
A growing number of legal analysts and policy experts are questioning the scale and strategy behind what has been dubbed “climate lawfare”—the use of litigation to achieve policy wins that failed in democratic debate.
In Canada, environmental law groups have received millions in combined funding from international sources, including U.S. and Chinese-linked philanthropies. Their legal actions have helped stall pipelines (like Trans Mountain), kill mining projects (like Teck’s Frontier), and block new roads, ports, and industrial expansions.
While some of these actions may reflect legitimate environmental concerns, the cumulative effect is the slow strangulation of Canadian competitiveness, particularly in sectors where China seeks dominance. And yet, federal and provincial governments remain unwilling to probe potential conflicts of interest or geopolitical entanglements.
Conclusion: Hijacked in Plain Sight
It would be a mistake to dismiss these concerns as fringe. A coordinated international campaign to stifle Western energy development while bolstering China’s strategic resource advantage is not just plausible—it is already unfolding. And Canada, through its well-intentioned but naïve climate policies, has played directly into this strategy.
Our rare earth mines are stalled, our pipelines are politicized, and our energy projects are litigated into oblivion—all while we import the very technologies and raw materials we could be producing ourselves.
The result? A Canada that’s poorer, less independent, and more vulnerable to geopolitical coercion.
If Ottawa wants to protect the climate and Canadian sovereignty, it must begin by asking hard questions: Who funds our climate movement? Who benefits when Canada stands still? And who’s writing the rules of the global green economy?