// ENERGY, CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT: CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate action at a crossroads
How has climate action been harmed by rising geopolitical tensions? Current geopolitics have created major challenges for both attention to and action on climate change among G7 members. Governments are focused on immediate crises – from wars in Ukraine, Iran and parts of Africa to trade and supply chain disruptions and growing threats to sovereignty. Mean- while, the climate crisis continues to worsen. At the same time, we are facing mas- sive amounts of climate disinformation and misinformation, fuelled by fossil fuel interests as well as political and ideological agendas. All this obscures the reality that we already have extraordinary clean energy solutions. Investment in clean energy in 2025 was double the amount invested in fossil fuels. Solar is now the cheapest form of electricity in history. Battery storage has become far more effective, and costs have fallen dramat- ically in recent years. As Francesco La Camera, director-general of the Inter- national Renewable Energy Agency, has said: “Storage will make renewables dominant in the energy system. There is no doubt.” So much has changed since I was first named Canada’s minister of envi- ronment and climate change in 2015, when I helped negotiate the Paris Agreement and later establish the Pow- ering Past Coal Alliance. At that time, clean energy technologies had not yet reached the scale or affordabil- ity needed to make them irresistible options. The good news is that we now have far better solutions at scale, par- ticularly solar, wind, battery storage and electric vehicles. What are the most urgent threats and key opportunities? One of the most immediate threats today is the growing link between energy security and affordability. The energy shock caused by the war in Iran and the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has driven up oil and gas prices for households
As geopolitical tensions divert attention and resources, the challenge is to align energy security, affordability and climate action
Interview with Catherine McKenna, founder and CEO, Climate and Nature
trying to heat their homes and power their cars. For oil-importing countries, the impacts have been severe — from can-
108 // G7 FRANCE: THE ÉVIAN SUMMIT 2026
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