OTTAWA Canada’s Climate Atlas affirms over 80% of Canadians live in cities and towns. This dense concentration of people, government, business, infrastructure, and economic resources makes cities a powerful source of resilience and resourcefulness in taking action on climate change. A mid-size Canadian city that stands out for climate action is Ottawa. Their plan and...
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change House of Common, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca Hello Sir, My name is Diane Szoller. I am Canada’s Country Manager for Climate Scorecard, a non-profit organization that monitors the climate policies and programs of leading greenhouse gas-emitting countries. Visit (https://www.climatescorecard.org/canada/).Seeing your commitments and progress...
ACCESS TO DATA Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, Canada adopted 2005 as the base year for its greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) reduction target and submits an inventory annually to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by April 15 of each year, as required. As it takes over a year to compile,...
Rating B In Canada, growing farm foods is highly determined by weather and climate, as climate change has meant increased temperatures and the likelihood of extreme events such as wildfires, flooding, hail storms, and tornadoes. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada report with earlier snow melts and shifting precipitation patterns; drought is becoming more common in the...
Rating B (Moderate Progress)The amount of water in Canadian lakes, rivers, wetlands, and aquifers has been impacted by climate change, evidenced by more flooding, toxic algae blooms, risk of waterborne diseases, drought, fires, hail storms, tornadoes, higher temperatures causing glacier melting, poor quality drinking water, and weather variability in temperature, rainfall, and snowfall. Rivers and...
Climate Progress in the First Half of 2023 B Rating Canada’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs) over the first six months of 2023 is demonstrated partially by any changes to energy use, as GGEs data is only available on a yearly basis. Canada reporting has shown limited progress in meeting its Paris Agreement...
Over the last decade, Canada’s Green Party has supported important legislation for Canada’s action on climate change. For example, in 2015, amendments to Bill C-46, the Pipelines Safety Act, were accepted, including ‘aboriginal governing bodies reimbursement for actions in relation to a spill’ and the concept of polluter pays. The Green Party was part of...
The IPCC has underscored the urgency of countries reducing their greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs) by 50% over pre-industrial temperatures by 2030. Visit https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports. Canada will come close to reducing its emissions by 50% by 2030 because of the following reasons:First, Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) (March 2022) details a GGE reduction target strategy of...
Federal greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs) data by economic sector in Canada has been relatively unchanged between 2005 and 2019 as emissions from oil and gas extraction, gas-powered trucks, and heavy-duty diesel vehicles continued to climb and be offset by decreases in other sectors. For example, a 66 Mt or 8.9% reduction in 2020 from 2019...
The Indigenous population in Canada (5%) is one of the largest among countries that share a similar colonial history. Statistics Canada (September 2022) reports 1,807,250 Indigenous peoples involving three very diverse groups/populations – First Nations (1,048,405), Métis (624,220) and Inuit (70,545). The remaining include multiple Indigenous identities reflected in over 70 Indigenous languages. Of the...
