Canada’s Silence on Climate is Deafening
While the U.S. and Mexico step up on climate targets, Canada missed key deadline
Canada just missed a critical deadline to address climate change, in what is the latest in series of worrisome actions.
While the United States and Mexico stepped up to announce new emissions targets in advance of the world climate conference in Paris in December, Canada stood silent. By failing to stand with its North American allies, Canada’s current Conservative government will miss its 2020 climate pollution target, and the enormous opportunity to grow its clean energy economy.
Why did Canada miss this key deadline?
The massive, reckless expansion of its tar sands industry.
March 31 marks the deadline by which developed countries are expected to announce their post-2020 emissions targets or Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) leading up to the international negotiations later this year. The U.S. target was already announced in a broader climate deal with China last year and was formally confirmed yesterday. And this week Mexico, announced its own climate target — the first for a developing country this year– which was marked by a White House announcement for a joint task force on climate policy co-operation.
Rapidly growing emissions from Canada’s tar sands industry will be the singular reason why Canada will fail to meet its current 2020 climate targets. What’s more is that building Keystone XL would worsen this problem. And it is one more reason to reject the tar sands pipeline. Canada’s failure to meet this latest deadline brought fierce criticism from the other Canadian political parties including its official opposition.
“The only thing the Conservatives are on target to meet is complete failure. When will we stop being international laggards on climate change?” said the New Democratic Party environmental critic Megan Leslie. Canada’s Liberal party made similar statements accusing the Conservation government of sabotaging the climate talks.
Unfortunately, this latest action — or lack of action — from Canada is a continuation of the country’s recent and dismal record on climate. Here are some key findings from the report from NRDC’s report with Environmental Defence Canada comparing the U.S. and Canada on clean energy and climate commitments:
- Canada abandoned the Kyoto Protocol: In 2011, Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, with its emissions nearly 20 percent above its 1990 levels — higher than when it joined. Among the nations that ratified Kyoto, Canada is the only country to withdraw.
- No regulations in oil and gas sector: The Canadian government has failed to adopt a single regulation to limit emissions from this sector which is the primary sector contributing to Canada’s inability to meet its international targets. Unfortunately, these emissions are set to skyrocket over the coming years and decades.
- Growth in tar sands cancels out provincial efforts: Rising emissions from the tar sands is expected to triple from 2005 levels by 2020 and cancel out any advances made by the provinces.
- The federal Canadian government is preventing action on climate: Over the last decade, Canada has aggressively promoted the tar sands expansion as central to its achieving “energy superpower” status including stopping a clean fuels policy in Europe. It has reduced support for climate research, ceased all major federal programs to support renewable energy development, gutted environmental requirements, muzzled scientists from speaking about climate change, and continued significant subsidies to the oil and gas sector.
It is time for Canada to revisit its approach on climate and get itself back on track to meet its international climate promises.
According to groups like the Canada’s Climate Action Network, meeting the international target will require domestically legislated targets implemented at the local level. Doing this will require setting a price on carbon nationwide wide but then setting a process by which provinces and territories can meet the nationwide approach. Strong coordination by the federal government will be important. In addition to targets, there are opportunities in the evolving Canadian Energy Strategy where targets can be set for renewable energy generation, efficiency, and low or zero-emitting vehicles. And finally, the federal government will need to end subsidies to the oil, coal, and gas sectors (including the tar sands industry) that encourage exploration, development, refineries and export.
There are strong opportunities for Canada and the United States to work together towards stronger clean energy and climate cooperation. The Obama administration is working to tackle the significant challenges presented by coal-fired power plant emissions. But Canada’s challenge will be to tackle its tar sands carbon pollution problem starting with limiting its massive expansion plans and then establishing strong and comprehensive policies on carbon pollution.
It is time for North American to travel to Paris with a strong front — including Canada.
