Canada & Climate Change: An Overview of Climate Policy

Since the institution of his Liberal government in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has striven to make Canada a leader in the fight against climate change. Domestically,  Canada has released two climate action plans under Trudeau. In 2016, the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, the nation’s first unified policy around protecting the environment and fighting climate change was released. The Pan-Canadian Framework centered around pricing climate change emissions, arguing that paying for the right to pollute would force emissions reductions. But the Framework accepted that pricing emissions alone would be ineffective in meeting the pre-2030 emission reduction time frame, and included plans for “complementary climate actions”, and provisions for adapting to climate disaster. In December 2020, the federal government under Trudeau released A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, the Pan-Canadian Framework updated and strengthened. This report was much more specific, citing a reduction of energy waste, increases in clean transportation and electricity, further pollution pricing, and an increase in low-polluting industry as the pillars of environmental policy in Canada. These pillars were the framework for 64 proposed policies, investments, and federal rules around climate change within the federal government. Furthermore, on June 29, 2021, the federal government assented to the Canada Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, which not only set a national goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and periodic emissions benchmarks, but also included measures of accountability, especially the production of public reports recounting important progress or (if necessary) failure.

 Internationally, Canada ratified the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, which set an international goal of keeping the average global temperature below an increase of  2℃. In July 2021, Canada updated their contribution to the Paris Agreement, pledging to reduce emissions by 40-45% compared to emissions before 2005. Canada has also been a leader at the Council of Parties to the UN climate conventions, or COP conferences, the 26th of which just happened between October 31 and November 12, 2021. These conferences are spaces for nations in the Council of Parties to share their climate news and collaborate on future policy. Canada, and Trudeau in particular, has used COP26 to warn other countries about future climate disasters and encourage climate activism around the world. There, Trudeau verbally committed to capping emissions in Canada made by oil and gas. Additionally at COP26, Canada helped to deliver the Climate Finance Delivery Plan, which aims to raise $100 billion per year between the COP nations between 2020 and 2025, to use as climate aid for developing nations. 

Despite this massive overhaul in the last five years, activists, environmentalists, and climate experts are still unsure of the efficacy of Canada’s federal policies. Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific analysis of global climate policy, has ranked Canada’s domestic target as “almost sufficient”, but policies and action as “highly insufficient.” Overall, Canada’s climate policies were graded as “highly insufficient,” arguing that Canada has already overshot the 2020 emissions targets and is not in a position to reach revised 2030 goals. This report was released on September 15, 2021, before some of Canada’s recent actions, namely the Climate Finance Delivery Plan and Trudeau’s new emissions caps, but it’s unsure whether they will have significant influence on the country’s grade. Additionally, there is a significant, justified lack of confidence in Trudeau’s government to hold themselves to these policies. The only repercussion for a lack of climate policy, at the moment, is climate change. Is a still-theoretical threat sufficient motivation for Canadian politicians? How will these policies stand against a $105 billion oil and gas industry? Canada, in the international field of climate policy, is now in the unfortunate position of doing the most while simultaneously not doing enough. Even the most aggressive emissions targets set by the federal government might not keep rising temperatures down or protect Canadians from growing consequences — yet even those most ambitious policies might not be feasible, practically or politically.

Lea SperberComment