We’re shooting at fast-moving targets

Canada has a pretty dismal track record when it comes to meeting climate action commitments.

We’ve already missed two targets — Rio in 2000 and Kyoto in 2012 — by a country mile. Everyone agrees it will be impossible to come close to meeting Copenhagen. That leaves Paris 2030 next to shoot for.

What are our chances of coming close to the bull’seye there?

Well, according to Julie Gelfand, federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, the chances are next to zero.

She reports Canada’s present carbon output is just over 700 megatonnes per year, and our Paris 2030 target is to get that down to just over 500 megatonnes.

If we continue with policies and practices now in place, we’ll be just treading water and our carbon dioxide output will not go down significantly.

If governments actually implement recently promised programs, we can get that down to 650 megatonnes, still far above the target.

Why are we finding it so difficult? Part of the challenge is working within the Canadian federal system.

Provinces have a lot of power and, as we’ve seen in recent weeks, they don’t always agree on what we need to do about climate and the environment.

Provincial action on climate change has been varied. Only five provinces and territories actually have targets of their own, and only four had a price on carbon before the PanCanadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change was signed.

British Columbia had both those policies in place.

It’s clear the federal government must act boldly on its own in ways that are within its jurisdiction.

There are many paths we could take, but I’ll mention two. First, we should re-enact the ecoENERGY Retrofit program to allow Canadian homeowners to renovate their houses to become more energy efficient. This was a successful project of the previous government that leveraged government spending by about five to one and helped 640,000 homeowners save an average of $200 on their annual energy bill. Unfortunately, the program has been passed to provinces, and few have taken up the offer.

Second, we must move to electrification of transport systems. Incentives for electric vehicles, including rebates and exemptions from taxes, licensing fees and parking fees, will accelerate that shift. Building out a network of fast charging stations will make it easy for Canadians to choose electric when buying their next vehicle. If there are sectors where choice is not available or products are not yet suitable, such as electric pickup trucks or vehicles that function efficiently in extremely cold weather, Canada should lead the way in developing these products.

We must do this. It’s by no means impossible.

We’re behind most European countries, which had already met their 2020 targets by 2015. And remember, these early targets will be easier to reach than the necessarily ambitious target of 80 per cent reduction by 2050.

The government proclaims every day the economy and the environment go hand in hand, but when we consistently miss our climate action commitments we have to admit we are failing both the environment and the economy.

Proposals, such as those mentioned above, would create new jobs and build the economy of the future. That is what it looks like when the economy and environment truly go hand in hand.

We must act now, and we must act boldly. We can’t be seen by our grandchildren as the selfish generation, the generation that fiddled while Rome burned.

Richard Cannings is member of Parliament for South OkanaganWest Kootenay and member of the NDP caucus.