Based on the fact that Canada has “the worst climate performance” of any G7 country since the signing of the Paris Agreement, Ottawa must act quickly to reduce our dependence on the oil and gas industry, concludes the Commissioner for the Environment. environment and sustainable development. The latter also qualifies the buyout and financing of the Trans Mountain pipeline as a political inconsistency in relation to the country’s commitments in favor of climate protection.
“Canada has already been a leader in the fight against climate change. However, after a series of missed opportunities, it is now the country with the worst performance of all the G7 nations since the adoption of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015 ”, summed up the Commissioner on Thursday. environment and sustainable development, Jerry DeMarco.
“We cannot keep going from failure to failure. We need to take action and get results. It is not enough to set other targets and other plans, ”he added, presenting a report entitled“ Lessons Learned from Canada’s Performance on Climate Change ”. It states that “30 years of commitments made by the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada have resulted in an increase in emissions of more than 20% since 1990”.
Trans Mountain
The report, tabled Thursday in the House of Commons, criticizes in particular the decision of the Trudeau government to nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline, then to finance the expansion project of this pipe which serves to facilitate the export of oil from the tar sands, to at the rate of 325 million barrels per year. “The financing of the Trans Mountain network expansion project is an example of policy inconsistency that does not fit with the commitments made in the fight against climate change,” reads the document.
The Trudeau government has always defended its decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline from Texas oil company Kinder Morgan in 2018 at a cost of $ 4.5 billion, a bill to which must be added at least $ 12.6 billion for the expansion project which is underway. The Liberals have pledged to use any potential revenue from the pipeline to fund measures to tackle the climate crisis.
The federal commissioner points out, however, that the fossil fuel industries are detrimental to Canada’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Even taking into account the significant reductions in oil sands emissions per barrel, Canada’s booming oil and gas production remains one of the main obstacles to meeting the country’s climate targets,” said he in his report.
Big polluter
What is more, the Commissioner’s analysis reminds us that production growth is forecast for the coming years, even if national consumption is decreasing. “In this sense, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are much higher than the amount that is accounted for under the Paris Agreement because this agreement only takes into account the emissions that are released into the territory of Canada. ‘a country and not exports, which are attributed to consumer countries,’ he notes.
Most of the emissions come from the use of these energies, and therefore from their combustion. The result: “Regardless of the method of accounting, Canada continues to make a significant contribution to the dangerous build-up of greenhouse gases” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which threatens the sustainability of the global climate. “Although Canada rejects about 1.6% of global emissions, it is among the 10 largest emitters on the planet and is one of the largest emitters per capita. “
Mr. DeMarco adds, however, that because of the very polarizing nature of this sector in the country, “ambitious climate policies are not only met with climate skeptics, but also with the resistance of various powerful industrial interests and with the concerns of voters who fear an increase. energy costs and economic losses due to the transition to cleaner energy sources ”.
Inevitable transition
The transition to other economic sectors, less polluting, is nevertheless inevitable, according to the commissioner, who invites the federal government to “reduce” its dependence “on the sectors which emit large quantities of emissions”. “To make an economic transition and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, we must ensure the protection of communities and workers who could be affected by climate policy”, especially in the provinces that will be the most affected, that is, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.
For Commissioner DeMarco, the implementation of an effective plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a strategy for adapting to the impacts of the climate crisis is also a duty towards future generations. “The inaction that persists weighs unfairly on future generations who will have to deal with the even greater repercussions of long-lasting greenhouse gases already released into the atmosphere,” reads the report.
After pledging earlier this year to reduce Canadian emissions by 40% to 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels, the Trudeau government has pledged to put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector. However, the details remain to be specified. Ottawa also pledged, in the Speech from the Throne presented earlier this week, to implement a first national strategy to adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis.
“Economists generally agree that the costs associated with climate change will increase as emissions increase,” notes the Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development. “The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices estimates that the average cost of a natural disaster in Canada has increased tenfold since the 1970s.”