Much stricter protection of Quebec’s biodiversity is essential to combat climate change and prepare for its impacts, warns the committee responsible for advising the Legault government on climate change. In a notice obtained by The dutythe committee calls for an end to the destruction of natural environments and urban sprawl, but also for an in-depth review of forestry practices and the implementation of a “national biodiversity strategy”.
This new opinion from the Advisory Committee on Climate Change, which will be presented on Friday at the UN conference on biodiversity (COP15), sends an unequivocal message: “We must transform our relationship with nature to take account the evolution of the climate and the collapse of biodiversity”, write the 11 members of the committee in the document submitted to the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, on November 24.
They thus underline that the biodiversity crisis must be dealt with in Quebec “with the same level of urgency and attention” as that of the climate, especially since they are closely linked. What is more, scientists insist, any strategy to combat global warming and to adapt to its impacts requires the protection of our natural heritage.
“When we talk about biodiversity, we are mainly talking about endangered species or preserved territories. But we have to go beyond that. Biodiversity is fundamental to meeting our climate objectives,” explained committee chairman Alain Webster in an interview with the To have to. “For example, half of greenhouse gas emissions are captured by natural ecosystems. It is therefore absolutely necessary to revalue the importance of these ecosystems, in particular in their capacity to sequester carbon. »
While development projects continue to encroach on natural environments, mainly in southern Quebec, the committee insists instead on the need to avoid any destruction. This requires a review of land use planning, underlines Mr. Webster. “We can’t afford to sprawl, because that results in an increase in travel, and therefore in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but also in a deterioration of ecosystems that are essential for CO capture2. »
Adaptation
The committee also supports the objective of protecting 30% of Quebec’s territory by 2030. “The south of the province, where biodiversity is most important and where ecological connectivity is particularly undermined by artificialization spaces, must be prioritized”, he adds in his opinion. In the St. Lawrence Lowlands region, for example, protected areas barely cover 4.35% of the territory, according to data included in the notice.
Whether forests, peat bogs, woodlands or wetlands, all of these environments must be healthy to play their role for biodiversity and the climate. The Legault government’s advisory committee therefore suggests investing in “restoration” projects, in order to allow ecosystems affected by human activity to better play their role and adapt to global warming.
At the same time, the scientists propose the implementation of “a vast program of adaptation of forests to the future climate”, and this, by 2025, “by diversifying the species planted and forestry practices”. Alain Webster also specifies that climatic disturbances must be taken into account in the management of their operations. Without commenting on the industrial nature of the harvest, he stresses that “it will be necessary to assess how our forestry practices affect the carbon balance”.
One thing is certain, the preservation of forest environments will have to be taken more into account in government decisions. Not only do natural forests harbor a much richer biodiversity, but they are also much more “resilient” to the warming which is already affecting them and which will affect them more in the decades to come, even if we managed to limit the rise in global temperatures to a viable threshold.
Tipping points
However, we must not rely on our natural environments to avoid the worst, warns the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation at McGill University, Catherine Potvin.
“We talk about natural climate solutions as if ecosystems were going to solve everything, when that is not the current situation. What we are seeing is that our carbon-rich ecosystems are undergoing significant disruptions and they are approaching tipping points where they will no longer be carbon sinks, but rather carbon sources,” explains the one who is also a member of the advisory committee.
This is the case of the boreal forest and areas of permafrost in northern Quebec, “whose degradation resulting from climate change risks causing the release of very large volumes of carbon and methane”, can we read in the notice which will be released on Friday.
“The preservation of ecosystems is important for biodiversity, especially in a context of global warming, in particular to preserve corridors that allow species to move. But we must not believe that this will be the solution to climate change and that we will be able to continue to use as many fossil fuels as before,” insists Ms.me Potwine.
This is all the more true since the richness of Quebec’s living fabric will be seriously undermined by climate change, which “degrades biodiversity, ecosystems and the services they provide, causing significant damage and loss “.
To prepare for this, the advisory committee recommends that the government adopt a “national biodiversity strategy”. The objective of this would be to ensure the “coherence” of “all the actions of the State”, in connection with the policy on climate change. According to Alain Webster, this framework is essential to quickly undertake the major changes that are detailed in the opinion produced by the committee responsible for advising the government.