Tag / Canada

by James Dunn

Strengthen bill C-12, then pass it

Last November, the federal government tabled the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act (Bill C-12). The bill in its current form is a good first step in giving a level of detail and accountability to our country’s stated commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But it needs a few improvements before becoming the law of the land.

First, the bill omits an emissions target for 2025, instead making the first target a full 9 years away in 2030. Given that 2030 is approximately the deadline by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared that action is necessary to prevent disaster, why not take a look at the halfway point, and course correct if we need to?

Second, Bill C-12 doesn’t adequately address how the federal government and the provinces will share the effort required to achieve emissions reductions. Different provinces have different emissions profiles (based on, for example, population and industry). The federal government must help each province develop and implement their respective plans, so that the parts will add up to the desired whole.

Bill C-12 also needs to place greater emphasis on the oversight role of independent scientific experts, and less on politicians. In the bill’s current form, there is indeed a new “Advisory” body, but how much authority this group will really have is unclear.

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act is close, but not quite ready for prime-time. With a few small adjustments, it can be a law we’ll be proud to compare with similar successful laws in the UK and New Zealand.

by James Dunn

Climate progress: The angel is in the details

A majority of us, and arguably a vast majority of us, have understood for years that we need to slow climate change. To borrow from the terminology of marketing research, the “sentiment” is well established. This is why it has been relatively straightforward to get national governments to commit to long-range, aspirational, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets. Canada, for example, isn’t unique in declaring its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Making these declarations is relatively painless to do. In political calculus, it’s not hard to imagine that such goals produce more good will than bad (though the latter reaction does persist as a stubborn minority view).

So what comes next? As a nation, how do you get beyond the initial sentiment to meaningful and measurable action? How do you move from big, distant goals to incremental and provable progress toward those goals? It turns out that the angel is in the details.

Ecojustice and a few other Canadian environmental groups are framing this next phase in terms of governmental accountability. In A New Canadian Climate Accountability Act: Building the legal foundation to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the authors make a thoughtful case for how this might be achieved. It’s not easy, and there are a lot of moving parts. But now is the time to make this a national focal point.

Crucial to the accountability plan is to establish an expert commission that makes recommendations, sets incremental targets, and ensures that funding incentives and responsibilities are correctly calibrated according to the overall 2050 goal. This commission is stitched into the highest levels of governance and policy-making, so it has the legitimacy of being “in the room where it happens.” Moreover, the commission must consult abundantly with the provinces and with Indigenous groups, and is responsible for frequent reporting to the public for improved transparency. That is to say: the commission is powerful but must steer clear of blunt-instrument problem-solving and inadequately explained dictates.

Think the notion of detailed accountability is just another unworkable idea in bureaucratic Canada? It’s not. The UK and New Zealand took the dive years ago, and their successes and even failures can be used as a template to guide our own effort now.

Think Canada’s already got this issue covered? We don’t. According to the Ecojustice report, we’ve missed every single GHG reduction target to date. And being situated closer to the pole than many nations means that global warming is a bigger problem and happening much faster in Canada than elsewhere.

Our elected officials must introduce a climate accountability law by the end of 2020.

UPDATE: On November 19, the House of Commons did indeed put forward BILL C-12: An Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.