As part of our international commitments on climate change, Canada, along with other signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are obligated to submit to the UNFCCC Secretariat periodic national communications (reports). These reports are to provide a wide ranging and comprehensive update on a country's mitigation and adaptation efforts in response to climate change.

The first two national communications were respectively submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat in 1993 and 1997. Canada's Third National Report on Climate Change comprises the following main elements:

• an overview of Canada's National Implementation Strategy on Climate Change and resulting key policies and measures;
• a summary of Canada's national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and projections of emissions to 2020; and,
• an overview of the science, impacts (vulnerability assessment), and adaptation issues facing Canada in the future.

The Third National Report on Climate Change also discusses the unique set of national circumstances underlying Canada's GHG emissions, financial contributions and technological transfer to developing countries, and the scope of public education and outreach programs.