Climate Change in Canada

No one disputes that Canada is a country with a cold climate, but opinions differ somewhat as to whether any changes are happening to Canada's climate. In recent years, we have witnessed several environmental disasters:

• The increasing frequency of forest fires poses a great threat. While it is true that the health of an ecosystem is restored through fire, lately these forest fires have become more frequent. In 2017 and 2021, the forest fires in British Columbia caused enormous damage. About two million hectares of forest were burned down in both fires.
• The amount of ice in the sea is drastically decreasing and scientists estimate that in the next 30 years the ice will disappear completely in the Artic Ocean during the summer months.
• Drought is a common occurrence every summer in California – a place that Canada relies on for a large number of its food product imports.
• It is evident that there are certain animal species that are losing their habitat in Canada. The Canadian grey jay bird is one such example of an endangered species and will soon become extinct.

In April 2019, the Government of Canada published its climate report which stated that the changes in the case of Canada's warming are already obvious in many parts of the country and are expected to intensify. The same report stated that the biggest changes in temperature have been felt in the Canadian Arctic, which will continue to warm twice as fast as the world average. The report suggests that many of the effects seen are likely to be irreversible. It also estimates that the average temperature in Canada has increased by 1.7 degrees Celsius annually since 1948, when temperatures were first recorded across the country. “While both human activities and natural variations in the climate have contributed to the observed warming in Canada, the human factor is dominant,” the report states.

Despite such gloomy predictions, the report suggests that global warming could be curbed if global action is taken to drastically reduce carbon emissions to net zero at the beginning of the second half of this century, as well as significantly reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases.

In 2015, after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau pledged to support efforts to ensure that the average global temperature did not rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial average. According to the results of climate monitoring measurements, today, after five years, the climate-action legislations in Canada have proved ineffective in achieving this goal. The average temperature exceeded the agreed upon target (rising above 1.5 degrees) and actually increased by 3 degrees Celsius. If this trend continues, we will inevitably witness rising sea levels, extreme weather events, as well as disruption to the entire climate system.

In December 2020, the Government of Canada announced a plan that climate change would be the focus in the future. A proposal entitled “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy” was presented. The plan was based on activities already undertaken by the PCF (Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change) to reduce pollution and support a healthier economy and environment, in an effort to control climate change. So far, we have witnessed only a few changes, including the adoption of several new regulations on environmental protection, as well as the introduction of a “carbon tax” and controls in the use of “solid fuels”. Nonetheless, it is evident that the Government of Canada has yet to reduce the emission of gases that cause the “greenhouse effect”. Also, the prospects of reducing the emission of harmful gases to net zero by 2050 are still uncertain. We have to wait patiently to find out if these changes will bring some positive results in the near future.

This article is part of the Local Journalism Initiative.