Emissions targets likely this fall

LEGISLATION TO SET FIVE-YEAR CLIMATE TARGETS HIGHEST PRIORITY: MINISTER

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says he plans to move quickly this fall to set legislated targets to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions that go even further than what has already been promised.

Wilkinson told The Canadian Press in an interview this week that COVID-19 is a priority but that Canada cannot take its eye off the ball when it comes to climate change.

“While COVID is certainly a threat to the health and safety of Canadians and to our economic recovery, the crisis that is climate change, if left unaddressed, will have impacts that are even more significant than COVID-19,” he said.

“We need to elevate our level of ambition and our urgency with which we are addressing the carbon issue.”

The Liberals promised during the 2019 election that they would be aiming to cut more greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 than was promised in the Paris climate accord, and will bring in a law to set five-year targets for curbing emissions all the way to 2050, when the goal is to be at net zero.

That means Canada needs to curb its emissions drastically over three decades and ensure any greenhouse gases still being produced can be absorbed rather than remain in the atmosphere.

That legislation has never materialized, and plans for it got delayed by the pandemic. So did many other facets of the Liberals’ environment platform, from promises to plant two billion new trees to bringing in new standards for cleanerburning fuels.

In the spring, Wilkinson was not sure when the new target or enforcement legislation would come, but he said this week it is on the top of his to-do list.

“It is, from my perspective, the highest priority from a legislative perspective for me as the minister of environment and climate change,” he said.