Canada’s emissions reductions targets must be updated to what we promised at COP26

Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 28/03/2022 15:11:47
Context: Question

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, we are expecting the government to release its plan for emissions reductions and without seeing it, unfortunately we know that we will fail to meet the urgency of the climate emergency. It is clear on the science that net-zero by 2050 is the wrong target. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that the only way to hold to 1.5°C, which we agreed to do in the Paris agreement, which is, we hope, a livable level of climate disruption, is rapid, deep cuts by 2030, which Canada currently does not have.

Will the government tell us when it will update the target to meet the demands that we agreed to at COP26 in Glasgow?

Mr. Terry Duguid (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would say to this House that through the efforts of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast, Canada has successfully flattened its emissions curve. However, as we are seeing from the immediate devastating impacts of a changing climate, I would agree with the hon. member that we need to do more on a faster timeline and that is why our government committed to table the 2030 emissions reduction plan at the end of March 2022, informed by consultations on key emissions reduction members. The hon. member will know that the end of March is coming soon.