The federal government is failing to plant the promised two billion trees by 2030, and spectacularly missed its planting target last year, says Canada’s environmental commissioner.
“Given early results and challenges in building partnerships early on, it is unlikely that program objectives will be achieved unless significant changes are made,” concludes Jerry V. DeMarco, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, in a report released Thursday.
In order to carry out its project, the government had to plant an average of 200 million trees per year, while setting itself much less ambitious objectives for the first years of the program. Even these modest targets have not been met.
If all government partners had fulfilled their promise in 2022, it would only be 16.5 million trees that could be added, estimates the commissioner. This is significantly below the objective of 60 million trees that Ottawa had set for the year.
Due to delays in signing agreements with aboriginal communities or private owners, for example, the federal government has completely missed the target of 90 million trees for the first two years of the program. These two years have advanced the project by only 2.3%.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had yet pledged to environmental activist Greta Thunberg and half a million people gathered in the streets of Montreal in 2019 to plant two billion trees in a decade. This promise was accompanied by investments of $3.2 billion.
“We know that planting trees is one of the best solutions for a greener future. Trees are durable, renewable, and recycle themselves over time. Now all we have to do is plant the first one,” Trudeau said.
Miscalculation of emissions
Even if all these trees were to be planted, Jerry V. DeMarco doubts that this will have the benefits mentioned by the Prime Minister on Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions record.
The Commissioner notes that the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada no longer considers that the two billion trees would absorb two megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (eq. CO2), such as what was originally mooted for 2030. In fact, the planting work would cause the project itself to produce emissions until 2030, before it would start absorbing carbon, in the very long term.
In addition, Ottawa is considering allowing those who plant the trees to subsequently sell credits on the carbon market. These credits are intended for polluting companies that want to offset their emissions by paying for such projects that must capture carbon. The environment commissioner thinks that is a very bad idea.
“In our view, allowing partner participation in offset credit schemes could distort the assessment of progress, since offset credits could be purchased to plant trees that would have been planted anyway,” may -we read in his report.
In general, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is attacking the way Ottawa makes accounting calculations of GHG emissions from its forests. The information collected was “primarily to meet international reporting obligations” and is not shared in a way that is understood by the public or to help decision-makers make choices.
In another report, Jerry V. DeMarco criticizes the fact that the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada has difficulty in assessing whether the regulations it puts in place in the area of transportation succeed in reducing GHG emissions.
He also finds that the government has taken far too long to write its Clean Fuel Regulations, finally published in the summer of 2022 after two years of delay, “which is not in line with the urgency of the crisis. climate”.
Other reports from the commissioner released Thursday point out that Ottawa is doing too little to protect species at risk.
With Alexander Shields