Overview

Climate Change Affects Us All

Climate change is a global problem, affecting all countries. While greenhouse gases (GHGs) form naturally, many human activities add additional GHGs to the atmosphere. Heating and cooling buildings, using energy at home and work, driving vehicles to move people and goods, powering industrial processes - most things we do that consume energy contribute to the problem. Radiation from the sun enters the earth's atmosphere, and GHGs act like a greenhouse's glass to block this heat from escaping back to space. There is a direct link between rising atmospheric GHG concentrations, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), global warming and more frequent extreme weather events. In Canada, climate change will affect fishing, farming, forestry, lakes, rivers, coastal communities and the North.

The Kyoto Protocol

Countries around the world have recognized the urgent need to take action to reduce GHGs in order to address the climate change challenge.

In December 1997, Canada and more than 160 other countries met in Kyoto, Japan, and agreed to targets to reduce GHG emissions. The agreement that set out those targets, and the options available to countries to achieve them, is known as the Kyoto Protocol. Canada's target is to reduce its GHG emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by the period between 2008 and 2012. This is comparable to the targets taken on by our major trading partners.

The Protocol will only become legally binding when it is ratified by at least 55 countries, covering at least 55 per cent of the emissions addressed by the Protocol. No country that has taken on a target has as yet ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Canada's Goal at the Sixth Conference of Parties (CoP 6)

All the countries of the world have been meeting every year since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol to define the operational rules of the Protocol - in other words, the international administrative framework within which countries will take steps to meet their Kyoto targets.

Last year, Ministers and delegates from some 180 governments met in the Dutch city of The Hague from November 13-24 at the Sixth Conference of Parties (CoP6) in an attempt to finalize the most important of these rules. That attempt did not succeed and CoP 6 suspended its work, which will resume in the German city of Bonn from July 16-27. Canada hopes CoP6 bis will conclude with a balanced package that deals with sinks, the three Kyoto Mechanisms and the compliance regime, and that also addresses the priorities of developing countries.

Meeting Our Target

Canada's intends to achieve the majority of its GHG reductions through actions taken domestically. Not only will this contribute to the global climate change effort, but this will also bring other environmental benefits to Canadians such as cleaner air. It will also create opportunities for investment in new advanced technologies.

The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to address climate change. The measures in Action Plan 2000 will take us one third of the way to our target. Last October most provincial and territorial governments also indicated the actions they are planning to take in their jurisdictions. With all governments working together and in partnership with the private sector and stakeholders, these actions will take Canada even further towards its –6 per cent goal. Canada will decide how it will fully meet its target when agreement has been reached on the rules to implement the Kyoto Protocol and it is clear how our major trading partners plan to proceed.

The Government of Canada is investing $500 million in Action Plan 2000. This investment, along with the $625 million over five years announced in Budget 2000, results in a total commitment of $1.1 billion to address climate change over the next five years, and builds on the $850 million that the Government of Canada spent during the previous five years.

Canada wants to meet its Kyoto target in an environmentally credible and cost-effective manner. Like all of its trading partners, Canada will seek to make use of the provisions of the Protocol that allow it to lower costs while achieving its environmental goals.

Sinks

Forests and agricultural soils can remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These carbon dioxide sequestration activities are called ‘sinks'. Sinks can be enhanced through sustainable management practices in forestry and on farms. The Kyoto Protocol provides for inclusion of sinks as part of a country's strategy to meet its obligations.

However, the current draft text includes provisions that account for only a limited number of sink activities. A broader inclusion of sink activities in the Kyoto Protocol is particularly important in order to engage Canada's rural agricultural and forestry communities in addressing climate change and will better reflect human impact on GHG concentrations in the atmosphere. It will also encourage better forest management and soil conservation practices around the world.

The Kyoto Protocol should recognize any activity that contributes to reducing concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere. Thus, in addition to activities that reduce our emissions of GHGs, this means including those activities that remove GHGs already in the atmosphere.

Addressing global climate change requires engaging all sectors and all countries. If sinks are excluded, or are included in only a limited way in the Kyoto Protocol, important sectors and many countries would have no incentive to manage their forests and farms in ways that will make appropriate and significant contributions to reducing GHGs in the atmosphere.

Kyoto Mechanisms

The Protocol also includes three market-based instruments known as the Kyoto Mechanisms that allow countries to earn or buy credits outside their borders. They are: the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, and International Emissions Trading.

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a way to earn credits by investing in emission reduction projects in developing countries.
• Joint Implementation (JI) is a way to earn credits by investing in emission reduction projects in developed countries that have taken on a Kyoto target.
• International Emissions Trading (IET) will permit developed countries that have taken on a Kyoto target to buy and sell credits among themselves.

Compliance

Compliance is critical to ensure an effective treaty that meets its environmental goals. Meeting our target will involve some significant economic adjustments and costs. We therefore have a clear interest in ensuring that other Parties have an incentive.

to meet their targets. Canada is working with other countries to design a compliance regime that will encourage and facilitate compliance and will give countries incentives to take their commitments seriously.

Developing Countries

Since climate change affects the entire planet, an effective plan of action for reducing GHGs must also include efforts by developing countries. In order for developing countries to enhance their contribution to fighting climate change, their capacity to do so must be strengthened. Capacity building and technology transfer needs to be a central part of the global approach to combating climate change. In addition, some countries such as the small island states are particularly vulnerable to the extreme weather and rising sea levels predicted to occur because of climate change. Adaptation assistance is therefore also an important part of the effort required by developed countries.

July 2001