Review of forestry sector emissions falling short, groups warn
OTTAWA — A federal review of Canada’s forestry sector emissions needs to go much further than currently proposed or it could jeopardize its credibility, nearly a dozen environmental groups said as they ramped up pressure over what they claim is the sector’s underreported carbon footprint.
In an open letter shared Tuesday, the groups say the federal government must broaden the review’s scope to consider how forestry emissions are estimated in the first place.
“The review’s failure to address Canada’s approach to estimating and reporting emissions calls into question its ability to deliver on its goals of ensuring ‘comparable, transparent and credible GHG accounting,’” reads the letter, signed by representatives from 11 groups, including Nature Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation.
The letter adds to recent scrutiny over Canada’s oversight of the forestry sector. A peer-reviewed study published in January suggested Canada underestimates the sector’s emissions, crediting it as a small carbon sink when by the authors’ counts its emissions are broadly comparable with the electricity and agricultural sectors.
While the groups that authored the letter welcome the government’s ongoing review of how it accounts for forestry sector emissions, they say the review is incomplete if it doesn’t also address how they are estimated, said Michael Polanyi, a policy and campaign manager with Nature Canada.
“That’s what groups, scientists, the environment commissioner, and even the [United Nations] have raised concerns about, is that Canada is understating the greenhouse gas emissions from the logging sector,” he said in an interview.
The government initiated a review of how it accounts for forestry sector emissions after the European Union announced it would do away by 2026 with the same benchmark Ottawa uses, leaving Canada as one of the last developed countries to use the reference-level approach.
That approach is based on measuring progress in a given year against what emissions would have looked like if “business-as-usual” logging practices went unchanged. Any progress above the business-as-usual reference level is then reported as a contribution towards Canada’s climate targets.
The federal environment commissioner reported last year that benchmark assumes historical harvest rates would continue, presenting the forestry sector with an “artificial emissions reduction” without any mitigation action or policy changes. In the same report, the commissioner recommended Ottawa initiate an independent review to look at how it estimates and reports on emission related to logging.
Polanyi says with the federal accounting review still in its early stages, there’s time for the government to expand its scope to include how it estimates emissions.