Evidence of meeting #124 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was countries.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
I think so; that's the plan. Certainly we've seen a quite significant emission reduction so far. Our emissions are projected to go down quite significantly into the future, based on the policies that have been implemented so far.
Those emission reduction projections—what's in them, what the assumptions are, and so forth—are laid out in these reports that are available online and that are done on a regular basis. Every year we produce a report.
The UN requires something called the “National Communication” once every four years. To have greater transparency and a shorter lag between those reports, there's something called the biennial report, which is every two years. We do our inventory report, which documents the emissions; they're per year and—
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
I'm going to have to interrupt you, Mr. Jones.
All of the reports to this point have been that we're not going to meet our targets. You've said that in a year we're going to have met the targets. It's an impossible target. The IPCC is saying it's an impossible target.
What is Environment Canada going to do to make sure we meet those targets in a year?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
Are you talking about the one-year target, the 2020 target from the Copenhagen conference?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
That one is a more challenging target than the 2030 target, for sure.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
I don't know if we're going to meet it. We'll know in 2021 when we have data on our emissions.
We've been implementing a whole suite of policies as aggressively and as quickly as we can in order to generate the emission reductions in the near term that we need in order to get on the path. We have shifted the curve from up to down. We are making significant progress. The 2020 target is more challenging because we have a shorter runway in order to achieve that target.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
Yes.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
How? How are we going to meet it? Is it by increasing the price of carbon?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
No. If we implement the policies within the pan-Canadian framework as designed and laid out, that will achieve the emission reductions required, particularly if you include the other important investments that are happening now in advancing clean technologies and in infrastructure, things like public transit and other things. Some of them will take longer to bear fruit, like building codes; it takes longer for the building stock to turn over, but we are making these investments and implementing these policies. We're seeing the reductions.
When all of the policies are implemented and all of the math is done, I think we'll be on track. If we have to do mid-course corrections in terms of our approach, we have time to do them. We'll know in a few years' time what we need to do.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
The IPCC report indicates we need to do much more. They're suggesting that we quadruple the price on carbon.
I'm from British Columbia. Canadians are groaning, particularly seniors on fixed incomes.
Would you agree that, internationally, Canada needs to.... According to the government, it's to up the price on carbon and gas and force people out of their cars. Is that part of the plan?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
That's not part of the plan. The plan is as it's laid out with the regular schedule, running up to $50 a tonne by 2022. That is the plan. That's our focus.
As I mentioned earlier on, this is a sequential process. We're looking to implement our policies to achieve Paris targets; then we'll set future targets and go from there. With luck, our investments in clean technology will bear some fruit, and the ability to drive emission reductions will be easier and cheaper in the future.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
With that, you're out of time.
We'll move over to Mr. Peschisolido.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
Mr. Chair, thank you.
I'd like to thank our guests for their testimony. I'll leave it to Mrs. Bérard and guests to answer.
I appreciated your testimony because it makes it clear that even though countries have national borders geopolitically, when it comes to fighting climate change there really aren't any borders.
Madam Mamdani spoke about $2.65 billion in the next four years to fight climate change internationally and work on a clean growth strategy. That's a big number.
Can you talk about some specific programs and how they are addressing the goal of dealing with international climate change?
Director, Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to highlight some of the work we're doing.
I will highlight some of the projects we are undertaking with multilateral development banks. One of them is the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia. This is with the Asian Development Bank, and it is aiming to catalyse private climate investment in developing Asian and Pacific countries.
Just to give you an example of what we're doing there, the fund provided one project of $8.1 million to the eastern Indonesian renewable energy project. The renewable energy generated by the project will avoid 159,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually. That's the equivalent of 34,000 cars taken off the road each year.
That is just one example of one project that we are supporting through our investments in the Asian Development Bank. There are numerous others. I could give you some more if you're interested.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
Perhaps we can have a submission, and then we'll move on.
Director, Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Sure.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
A few times I've heard about market forces and removing the barriers from companies getting involved. For the longest time, a lot of companies and governments here in Canada and internationally have taken the view that pollution is free, but we're now putting a price on pollution.
Can you talk a little about how government and your dealings with France and other countries internationally address that issue, that pollution is not free, that there is a price on pollution, but that you want to work with companies and other agencies to go into a clean-growth approach?
My view is that you need to grow the economy, because if you don't grow the economy, we all become poor. On the other hand, you want to grow the economy to transition from our economy right now to a more clean-growth approach. How do you do that internationally, and what's been your role up to this point?
Director General, Climate Change International and Chief Negotiator for Climate Change, Department of the Environment
There are number of fora, as I was mentioning earlier, where Canada gets together with other countries, with subnationals and with businesses and other groups to talk about carbon markets and about our experience on carbon pricing.
I'll highlight one called the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, which Minister McKenna co-chairs. That one brings together businesses, civil society groups and governments to promote the successful implementation of carbon pricing. They share experiences and expand the evidence base about carbon pricing and the systems and policies by holding various workshops, regional working groups and so on, to share those types of experience. That's just one example.
Another is the Paris Declaration on Carbon Pricing in the Americas, which brings together national and subnational governments in the Americas who are committed to carbon pricing as a central policy instrument and apply the cost of carbon to guide public investment decisions.
Again, these are examples of two fora where we play a role in talking about our experience and learning from others, in order to continue to drive the momentum on carbon pricing.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
I was heartened to hear from Madam Mamdani about the focus on girls and women, as well as on agricultural policy.
Just like Wayne and Mark, I too am from B.C. We put a huge emphasis on place-based agriculture and a national food security policy. Can you talk a bit about how your program is working? Maybe pick a country or two and describe how it's helping in your goals.
Director, Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
I can't speak specifically to the work that's being done on climate-smart agriculture, except to say that it is a focus of a number of our geographic bilateral programs. Since I'm giving you the list of other support that we are providing, I can provide that as well.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
What does that mean when we're dealing with a country? Are we funding a program, or...?
Director, Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
We have bilateral projects with a number of countries. They have specific focus areas, some of which are climate-smart agriculture or other food security-related programming, given the fact that these are related to adaptation. We work with these countries to look at different ways of farming in the context of climate change, so that they are more resilient to climate change and what it is bringing to their environment.