Over the past 18 years, the Canadian government has made several commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as its contribution to international efforts to limit the risks of human-induced climate change. Canada made its first international commitment at the 1988 World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere and then followed this with commitments at the 1988 G7 meeting, the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the 1997 negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol.
To meet these commitments, the government has relied primarily on non-compulsory policies—information programs and modest subsidies—to encourage Canadian businesses and consumers to shift voluntarily to less greenhouse gas–intensive technologies and lifestyles. Salient policy initiatives include the 1990 Green Plan, the National Action Program on Climate Change in 1995, Action Plan 2000, the 2002 Climate Change Plan for Canada and Project Green in 2005.
Instead, however, the country’s greenhouse gas emissions...
Mark Jaccard is a professor at Simon Fraser University and convening lead author for sustainable energy policy with the Global Energy Assessment. He has also served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Canada’s National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.
Advertisement
Advertisement