Time is running out for Canada if it wants to meet its 2030 climate objectives, the Environment Commissioner warned on Thursday, stressing that the implementation of the measures taken by Ottawa is being done “too slowly”.
“The stakes are getting higher every year, and the window of opportunity to reduce emissions and meet Canada’s 2030 target is closing quickly,” said Jerry DeMarco, Commissioner of the Environment, during the presentation of a report on the government’s climate policy.
During the Paris agreement, Justin Trudeau’s government committed to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030.
But it only has six years left to achieve this and the country has so far reduced its emissions by only 7% by 2022, the commissioner argued.
Canada is also the G7 member performing the least in terms of reducing GHGs, he stressed.
“It is not time to give up,” however, repeated Jerry DeMarco during a press conference, calling for an intensification of climate efforts and insisting on the fact that it was still possible to achieve the objective set.
In 2023, the federal government published a GHG reduction plan including 149 measures, but their implementation remains “insufficient”, underlines the report.
The audit of a sample of 20 of these measures showed that nine of them were “progressing as planned”, such as incentives for the purchase of zero-emission vehicles, while nine others faced difficulties and two “major obstacles”, notably the proposal to cap emissions from the oil gas sector announced on Monday and which was received with reluctance.
In several cases, the government’s estimates were also “overly optimistic,” the report notes.
The world’s fourth largest oil producer, Canada is among the world’s 10 largest emitters of greenhouse gases and one of the largest emitters per capita.
Last year, the government estimated that its reductions would reach just 36.2% by 2030.
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