Green Party MPs will press Canada to work with other nations to achieve the development of a new global, inclusive, equitable post-Kyoto Treaty at COP21 in Paris, December 2015, with the targets outlined above. In addition, Canada must re-join by re-ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in order to participate in the many measures and governance systems developed, many under our leadership.
Canada will commit to the necessary technology transfers and funding required for developing nations to transition to a post-carbon economy in a fair and equitable way, keeping in mind Canada’s obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to absorb some of the costs of mitigation and adaptation based on past responsibility for the crisis and our country’s capability to pay.
Canada will work to continue and enhance Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism to improve and strengthen verification of GHG reductions so that we can have a reliable method in place to invest confidently in GHG reductions in developing nations.
Canada will support the extension of the Kyoto Protocol to cover international aviation and shipping.
Canada will work with all nations in the treaty to be concluded in 2015, entering into force in 2020. Green Party MPs will work to ensure the new treaty is legally binding on all nations and that the collective commitments undertaken as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) will allow the stabilization of GHG in the atmosphere to occur well below levels that would lead to 2 degrees C average global temperature increase, and preferably at levels to maintain no more than a 1.5 degree C rise.
In 2015, Green Party MPs will:
- Work to ensure Canada meets the deadline for tabling of our Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in the first quarter of 2015, as agreed for countries in the industrialized world (despite the weakening of language to “those Parties ready to do so”);
- Ensure plans and measures are put in place to allow Canada to meet its 2020 target as set by Stephen Harper in 2009. Due to the failure to take action, this target of reducing GHG from 2005 levels by 17% by 2020, although initially weak, will prove challenging;
- Engage in multi-lateral diplomacy to increase the levels of ambition in all nations’ INDC prior to the COP21 negotiations, including through enhanced financing, adaptation measures, technology transfer, and capacity building;
- Commit in Budget 2015, at least $400 million for each 2015 and 2016 to support adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries;
- Recognize the legitimacy of developing country calls for additional funding, not through the Green Climate Fund, for the costs of Loss and Damage.