The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that Alberta and Ottawa have agreed on industrial carbon pricing. The Globe's guest columnist Thomas Gunton writes that while this moves forward the approval of a new oil pipeline to British Columbia's coast, it represents a setback in climate policy and fails to tackle the main obstacles to construction. The Friday agreement is a climb down from the $170 carbon price the previous Liberal government had set. Weakening environmental reviews to speed up approvals poses risks like inadequate spill prevention, weaker species protections and insufficient climate impact assessments. The true challenge for the Alberta pipeline is economics, not regulation, as global oil demand is slowing. The International Energy Agency predicts that, without policy changes, demand will still grow until 2050 but at a much slower rate than before. If announced government policies are implemented, oil demand will peak in 2030 and then begin to decline. If net-zero policies were adopted, oil demand is forecast to decline by about 75 per cent by 2050. Mr. Gunton ends by saying the Alberta pipeline proposal makes no sense, which is why no private company has stepped up to build it.