And heading into the last week of April 2021, our first month lived twice in COVID.  Sadly, not our last.  I am looking forward to getting my vaccination on Thursday.  Thankfully (and genuinely thankful for prayers) my family members with COVID are on the mend. I look at poor India and wonder at the enormity of exponential growth and how we could have managed the pandemic so much better.

I succeeded this week, with indispensable help from Paul Manly, in forcing an emergency debate on COVID, the variants and the perennial problem of lack of coordination – federally and provincially. We called for a reasonable and sensible review of the lessons learned. We asked for all orders of government to ask public health experts to provide advice:  can we shift from “flattening the curve” to going to zero-COVID?  https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergency-debate-covid19-variants-1.5996788

I think our Green caucus efforts helped push for the increased restrictions on flights from areas where the new double variants have emerged. But we know that horse is out that particular barn door. Those double variants have already arrived in Quebec, Alberta and the largest number of cases here in British Columbia.

This was a big work week with the new federal budget on Monday and Earth Day on Thursday. I promised Linda Solomon Wood, during our National Observer conversations, that I would write a column analyzing the budget, which I am still doing, so watch for that soon. But for this GSM I want to focus on the progress, halting though it was, brought about by the Biden Climate Leaders’ Summit.

With zooms, webinars, and parliament in session, we had a lot of ways in which we focused on Earth Day. The Global Greens event on Tuesday, looking forward to the Biden Climate Summit on Earth Day, is worth watching. We held it to one hour, with participation from elected Greens from the global South and industrialized countries in an inspiring conversation.  The panelists were the Minister of Climate from New Zealand, also co-leader of NZ Greens, James Shaw, the leader of the Rwandan Greens, Dr. Frank Hibeneza MP,  leader of the Argentinian Greens, Silvia Vasquez and the only elected Green in the UK Parliament, Caroline Lucas. Listening to all of them will re-ignite your sense of hope, optimism and purpose in being Green. Our Global Green family is astonishing.

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMayMPSGI/posts/2043330902475573

I started Earth Day earlier than I wanted for President Biden’s Climate Leaders’ Summit; up at 4:30 AM and live tweeting the event at 5 AM BC time.

Having missed the chance of a 2020 COP due to COVID, the new US administration created their own “holding feet to the fire” moment. The Earth Day Summit was an attempt to push forty national leaders to climate action. Collectively those forty nations could save us from the worst of the climate emergency.  We must never lose hope that we can move away from fossil fuels fast enough, while restoring as much of the planet’s natural sequestration capacity in green and leafy life, on land and in our oceans, also fast enough, to allow human civilization to remain intact and save millions of species.  Holding to 1.5 degrees C is no guarantee, but will give our children far better odds than blowing past 2 degrees C global average temperature increase.

To be successful, Biden and Kerry needed other countries to at least commit to what the US, now back in the Paris Agreement, is prepared to do. Biden’s administration, particularly climate security envoy John Kerry, really pulled out the stops, twisting arms, to push all nations to increase their targets such that we could move off our current trajectory – towards 3-4 degrees C global average temperature increase – to get to one with any hope of staying well below 2 degrees C and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees.  That is what all nations promised in Paris in 2015 at COP21.  And with every passing day, the chances of getting there shrink.

The best explanation of carbon budgets and the perilous nature of delay comes from Mark Carney’s new book, Value(s): Building a Better World for all (p. 273):

…”the carbon budget to limit temperature rises to below catastrophic levels is rapidly being exhausted….

“If we had started in 2000, we could have hit the 1.5 degree C objective by halving emissions every thirty years.  Now we must halve emissions every ten years. If we wait another four years, the challenge will be to halve emissions every year. If we wait another eight years, our 1.5 degree C carbon budget will be exhausted.”

This closely mirrors the IPCC advice from its Special Report on 1.5 degrees (October 2018) : “In model pathways with no or limited overshoot of 1.5°C, global net anthropogenic CO₂ emissions decline by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030… reaching net zero around 2050 …” (emphasis added)

Clearly, Biden and Kerry grasp that reality.  Kerry flew to Shanghai in his shuttle diplomacy to get more out of the Peoples’ Republic of China. It is rumoured that Kerry made it clear to Canada that the recently tabled figure in Monday’s budget of going to 36% below 2005 by 2030 (a small increase over the Harper target, still in place, of 30% below 2005 by 2030) would not be good enough to meet expectations. Kerry was twisting arms right up to the Summit itself.

Speaker after speaker stressed that the slashing of GHG emissions had to primarily take place this decade. President Macron of France put it succinctly, “2030 is the new 2050.”

They needed Canada to step up.  At least, one can say we limped a bit closer to where we should be.  Trudeau’s speech was an appalling self-congratulatory, arrogant claim of leadership. A dose of humility would have gone down better.  He committed Canada to 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030, but also pleaded for Canadian exceptionalism – it is so hard for us because we must keep building pipelines and mining the oil sands. “Canada is a country that produces and exports its energy, and so I understand that this will not be easy.”

Other countries, especially the Europeans, did step up, announcing more in climate financing and some promising tougher targets by June when leaders will meet again at the G-20.

The US is now committed to cutting its 2005 emissions by 50-52% by 2030. That is huge.  As well, the US is doubling its funding pledges to the developing world by 2024 (around $2.8 billion per year). Taking the virtual floor at the Climate Summit, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen committed to another $1.2 billion for the green climate fund and $485 million in funding to support multilateral climate initiatives.

China did not put in place a new target (called an NDC under Paris, for “Nationally Determined Contribution”.)  Chinawill strive to peak emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060. On coal phase-out, it pledged to “strictly limit” any new coal-fired power plant construction over the next five years and phase down coal consumption completely as a long-term goal. Other horrific abusers of human rights and nature were kept on board. Brazil’s Bolsonaro, who had threatened to leave the Paris Agreement, pledged to do more to protect the Amazon, stopping all illegal logging by 2030, and moving from a 2060 end year to 2050 to achieve net zero. Erdogan of Turkey was also on board for limited commitments.  Modi of India, in the grip of this devastating pandemic, spoke of the need to emerge from COVID in a decarbonized, equitable approach. Interestingly, he spoke of the need for the industrialized world to learn from the traditional lifestyle of low consumption of his nation.

Strong commitments from the EU, Germany, Italy (hosting the G20 this year where climate is expected to dominate the discussions), UK, France and Japan are already far ahead of the US. And Canada, even with the increased target, remains the worst in the industrialized world.

The most powerful speeches came from other leaders. A young indigenous woman who, with her family had left Mexico driven away by extreme weather events, only to move to New York in time for Superstorm Sandy, gave a powerful speech.  Xiye Bastida is now an active campaigner with Fridays for the Future. Who could have  imagined  an official event broadcast from the White House where a speaker would denounce “colonialism, oppression and capitalism.”  She was clear, “You need to accept that the era of fossil fuels is over,” and then read out the youth demands for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and an end to new fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines. The other stunning speech was from His Holiness Pope Francis.

Strangely enough, the line that will stick with me was from a leader I don’t much like.  Boris Johnson was off-the-cuff and totally committed, as the host of the Glasgow COP26, now scheduled for November 2021.  The UK commitments are impressive, driven by a climate law which since 2008, in five year increments, has driven down UK GHG.  Johnson announced the target of 78% below 1990 levels by 2035, including in its emissions aviation and international shipping, as well as ending support for fossil fuels overseas and doubling international climate finance. The line I liked? “This isn’t some sort of politically correct act of.. of,,” –  he searched for the words and came up with  –  “bunny-hugging!”

There was a lot of coverage of the summit, but this story from the National Catholic Reporter seemed to capture the sense of it.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/pope-francis-earth-day-messages-warns-we-are-edge-climate-change

Most Canadian coverage, naturally enough spoke of Canada’s new target and its adequacy- or inadequacy.  I am so very pleased that the national media interviews our leader, Annamie Paul, who nailed it on CBC Power and Politics: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1888761923737

Well, there is much else going on, but I have written too much already! There was the BC budget this week, with nothing for protecting old growth, so we must keep supporting the Fairy Creek old-growth protectors. And incredibly, more support for LNG from the BC NDP. https://www.bcgreens.ca/b_c_greens_respond_to_2021_budget

Stay well. Be safe. Be very careful.

I will write you next week on the tenth anniversary of our big breakthrough election here in Saanich-Gulf Islands- May 2, 2011!  And speaking of anniversaries, thanks so much to everyone who sent John and me Happy Second Anniversary greetings!  So far, it seems to be working out!

Love,

Elizabeth

Here are some video clips worth watching:

My Earth Day message in the House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELL9SvR7wEk

Bob Bossin’s wonderful musical Earth Day gift, “Pass it Along” by songwriter Scott Cook,  (with John and me singing too!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNj7LyHqwFE  Pass it along

A great event with Jenica Atwin explaining what is wrong with so-called, “Small Modular Reactors:”

https://www.facebook.com/JenicaAtwinFredericton/posts/1407947686228734

My conversation with Linda Solomon Wood at the National Observer

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/04/23/news/video-elizabeth-may-justin-trudeau-joe-biden-and-canadas-climate-policy

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-04-15 15:09 [p.5684]

Mr. Speaker, Canada’s climate record just continues to get worse. The most recently released data shows that our greenhouse gas emissions were rising at the beginning of COVID. Today’s report from Environmental Defence demonstrates, once again, that fossil fuel subsidies are also going up, while a report from the Breach tells us that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers secured its own special committee with cabinet.

Next week, when the Prime Minister stands up in President Biden’s climate summit, we will at long last announce a target that is meaningful and holds to 1.5°C?

Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson (North Vancouver)
2021-04-15 15:09 [p.5684]

Mr. Speaker, certainly, we have developed a comprehensive climate plan that enables Canada to move forward with the rest of the international community to meet our international obligations. A credible climate plan requires increased ambition. The parties to Paris agreed that all would need to do more and increase ambition overtime. Countries around the world are doing that, and Canada will be playing its part in the international community and seizing the economic opportunities.

I believe that all parties in the House, with perhaps the exception of the Conservative Party, agree on the need for greater ambition, and Canada will be bringing forward a new climate target next week at the Earth summit.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-02-22 19:53 [p.4407]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to take the adjournment proceedings this evening to review a question and to hopefully get a better answer than the one I received back on November 30, 2020.
At that time, of course, being in calendar year 2020, the question of extreme importance and urgency was whether the government was going to fulfill a commitment that the Government of Canada made during the negotiations at COP 15 in Paris. That commitment was to improve and enhance what is called an NDC in the Paris language, a nationally determined contribution, generally referred to as a target. We committed in Paris that in calendar year 2020 we would improve our target and do so again every five years thereafter.

When I asked the minister what the plans were to improve our target in 2020, I was disappointed that he did not answer directly, but the answer is now very clear. The time has passed. We are in 2021. We have not changed our target. We have not met the commitment we made.

In conversations with people around the minister’s office, it was reported to me that the department did not think that commitment was legally binding and other countries have not done it either. I find both of those responses appalling. It is a commitment that we made. It can be found in paragraph 24 of the COP 21 decision document, in which every country with a 2030 deadline for their first NDC was to improve their target in 2020. As to the idea that other countries have not done it, 69 of them have. Of course, it is only the countries that have 2030 deadlines.

Here we are in 2021 with a target that is completely out of step with all of our G7 partners and most of the industrialized world. We have one of the weakest targets in the world and the weakest of an industrialized country, except perhaps Saudi Arabia. We now have an opportunity to improve our record. I want to shift gears here to the potential for getting things right.

We are desperately close to being completely out of time in terms of carbon budgeting to avoid going above 1.5° Celsius global average temperature increase. This is in fact the target that is in the Paris Agreement, which is a legally binding document. This increase must not be exceeded, but on almost every review of where we are on the science, it is almost impossible to hold to 1.5°. There is a window on holding to our target. It will have closed, and permanently, well before 2030.

We now have the opportunity to improve our target and do our fair share, which would be at least twice what we have now committed to do, and that opportunity is coming up now because President Biden has established a climate leaders summit to take place on Earth Day, April 22, obviously, I am sure, by Zoom.

That is when Canada is really going to have to step up and say that we are prepared to reduce our emissions by 60% below 2005 levels by 2030, and set in place a first milestone year under Bill C-12 of reductions that are firm by 2025, of at least 15%. That would be the beginning of a clear commitment to the kind of action we said we would undertake when we signed the Paris Agreement.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-06-04 14:02

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the honourable minister for those responses.

Changing the subject but on the same question of issues that may be falling through the cracks due to COVID-19, the climate crisis continues apace. I mentioned in this place a week ago, in questions, that the new reading of global concentrations in the atmosphere, of 417 parts per million in carbon dioxide is a measurement that’s unprecedented not only over centuries but unprecedented over the last one million years. Since then, a new study in Science News, relying on paleoclimatology, said it’s actually unprecedented over the last 23 million years.

In other words, if we’re looking at flashing red lights on the dashboard of human survival, the flashing red light of climate emergency is getting much brighter and much more frightening than the COVID-19 emergency.

When will this government meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement to a new, revised and more aggressive target within 2020, as required by the Paris Agreement?

Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson (North Vancouver)
2020-06-04 14:03

Mr. Chair, certainly the government agrees with her that this is a crisis. It is a crisis that is moving at us perhaps more slowly than COVID-19, but it is a crisis whose impacts will be devastating if in fact we do not act, both in Canada and as a member of the global community.

This government has made a commitment to develop a plan that will see us meet and exceed our 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement. We have made that commitment. Obviously, we will continue to work to do that in advance of the next COP. We’ve also committed to achieving net zero by 2050, which science tells us we must do. We remain fully committed to doing that.

Of course, I am very happy to have these conversations with my honourable colleague and to continue them as we move forward.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-05-27 13:50

This question relates to another current emergency: the climate emergency.

This week it was reported that the concentration of greenhouse gases reached 417 parts per million. That’s not just unprecedented over thousands of years; that’s unprecedented over the last one million years. The temperatures in the Arctic broke 86°F, 30°C in the Arctic circle. The recognized parties in the House have established standing committees to work, but not the committee on the environment. We’ve asked for this in negotiations.

When will the recognized parties remember the June 2019 emergency resolution that we are in a climate emergency, and start making sure that we hit 2020 commitments under the Paris Agreement to improve our targets?

Hon. Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount)
2020-05-27 13:52

Mr. Chair, I appreciate my colleague’s questions. I will remind her that we have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. We’ve also committed to surpassing the targets that we had originally set for 2030.

We realize that along with the COVID pandemic, which is the major problem that exists in the world today, there is another problem as well that affects the entire planet, and that is the problem associated with climate change. We remain committed to achieving those targets.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-02-28 12:07 [p.1749]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to raise the urgent matter of the climate emergency. Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, 2020 is the year in which Canada must improve its climate target. We agreed to do so in 2015. We are now delinquent, in that the COP decision in Paris called for the new targets to be tabled by February 9 of this year. We need to table our new target. It needs to meet the IPCC imperative.

Can the minister update the House on progress to deliver a climate accountability act and a new target?

Mr. Peter Schiefke (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.): Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for her work on this issue.

We took a leadership role in 2015 when we signed the Paris Agreement and encouraged other countries to do the same. Through the record investments, plans and programs we have put in place, we have been able to, projections show, bring us to 75% of the way there. We know there is more work to do, which is why we are committing to not only meeting that target but exceeding it and putting in place, in the coming months, the expert panel that will show this House and all Canadians how we plan on being carbon neutral by 2050. It is something we need to do for all of us and for our children and grandchildren.

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Did you know that today – February 9th – is the deadline for the Canadian government to table its new climate target with the United Nations? That’s okay, Justin Trudeau and his environment minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, don’t know it either.

It is a little complicated. The Paris meeting, COP21, resulted in two agreements.

The Paris Agreement is the BIG ONE that everyone remembers. But COP21 also approved something called the COP21 Decision Document that included a lot of timelines to make sure things moved forward. The requirement for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to prepare a special report on the difference in impacts between a world warmed by 1.5 degrees C global average temperature increase and a 2 degree difference was part of the COP21 decision document. The COP21 Decision Document also gave the IPCC the October 2018 deadline.

The requirement to get in a new target (known as our Nationally Determined Contribution –NDC) today is found in the following two paragraphs of the COP21 Decision Document. I have added text in CAPS to help with translation from UN- language:

Also requests those Parties whose intended nationally determined contribution pursuant to decision 1/CP.20 contains a time frame up to 2030 (THAT MEANS CANADA SINCE OUR NDC IS 30% BELOW 2005 BY 2030) to communicate or update by 2020 these contributions and to do so every five years thereafter pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 9, of the Agreement;
Decides that Parties shall submit to the secretariat their nationally determined contributions referred to in Article 4 of the Agreement at least 9 to 12 months in advance of the relevant session (COP26 IN GLASGOW) of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement with a view to facilitating the clarity, transparency and understanding of these contributions,including through a synthesis report prepared by the secretariat;

Today is nine months in advance of the opening of COP26 – which opens November 9, 2020.

Have any other nations missed the deadline? It is easier to list those who remembered. Two countries – the Marshall Islands and Suriname – have done so.

Unfortunately, as you can tell from the “REQUESTS” language in para 24, this deadline was not legally binding.

We must keep pushing our government to understand the dynamics of building momentum. We need Canada to at least double our NDC and file it soon. The sooner we do, the more we create pressure on other countries to table their new targets – and ensure those targets are consistent with the IPCC advice in the special 1.5 report referenced above.

One more missed opportunity, but in a week of disappointments.

The ruling of the federal Court on TMX was a major blow. But it was mostly a blow to morale. The appeals will go to the Supreme Court of Canada where we may get clarity around the question of what consultation means in the context of reconciliation.

And there is the larger reality that the TMX pipeline project is not actually fully approved. Hearings will now resume under what used to be called the National Energy Board (NEB) – under changed name (as a result of changes in the omnibus bill C-69) of the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER). Only 2/3rds of the pipeline route has been approved. One third of the 1,147 kilometre route (roughly Kamloops to Metro Vancouver) is still to be determined through the CER hearings.

Hearings will be held through the summer, with a report expected before the end of the year.

Also this week, we experienced the outrage of the RCMP entering Wet’suwet’en territory to enforce the injunction. Arrests and conflict should never have taken place. Nation to nation talks could have prevented all of this, but the federal and BC governments abdicated their responsibility. The UNDRIP law that BC just passed and our national ratification of UNDRIP are apparently more lip service than real. Our Green caucus will keep pushing for a real engagement to respect the role and rights of hereditary chiefs under the “rule of law” and consider the compromise routing offered by the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.

So, to end on a more positive note, I sense strong opposition from many Liberal MPs to approving the giant Teck oil sands mine. Many have asked me for deep details as they argue behind closed doors of the Liberal caucus to Reject Teck.

Please keep up the pressure. I am including the links to petitions to Parliament at the end of today’s missive.

My whole message today – whether on climate COPs – Teck- TMX or Coastal GasLink – is that we must never EVER – ever – give up!

Have yourself a wonderful day!!

Elizabeth

Petition on Wet’suwet’en: please click here!
Petition on committing 50% of Canada’s public climate finance for developing countries towards adaptation, and at least 15% towards projects for gender equality: please click here!
Petition on pressing for electoral reform through a National Citizens’ assembly: please click here!

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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Madam Speaker, I rise tonight at adjournment proceedings to review a question and a response I received on October 4, 2017. It relates to the challenge of climate change.

My question was for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister did rise and provide a response, but it was not entirely to the point of the question. It was certainly positive, and he was very generous in praising my long-time personal work on the file.

I quoted from our colleague, the late Arnold Chan, who in his last words to the House in a speech that was read by the hon. member for Ajax, who said to all of us:

It is imperative that we stop treating climate change as solely an environmental issue, but recognize it as an all-encompassing priority that we as a society and a government must confront with the utmost urgency.

When I stood to ask that question October 4, the day before we had had the release of the report of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, within the office of the Auditor General, Julie Gelfand, the commissioner, happened to have said this about how we were doing as a country and as a government to meet our climate change targets. She said:

Climate change is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. These audits show that when it comes to climate change action, Canada has a lot of work to do in order to reach the targets it has set.

As my colleague, the parliamentary secretary to minister of environment, will know, because I have made this point in the House in debate before, Canada showed leadership in 2015 in Paris. In the negotiations of the Paris accord, Canada was the first industrialized country to step up and agree with the developing world that we had to aim to hold global average temperature increase to no more than 1.5o C above what it was before the industrial revolution. These sound like trivial numbers, but in the context of survival for the low-lying island states, survival for people in the African content, and survival for the Arctic ice to be present over our north pole, seasonally, year round, and into the future, we have to hold global average temperature to 1.5o.

However, the target that Canada chose domestically was the very one that our Minister of Environment and Climate Change criticized in Paris, pointing out that the target of the previous prime minister, Stephen Harper, was really, as the minister said at the time, the floor, that we had to do better and aim higher. Certainly, the target of 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, put in place by the previous government in May of 2015, is entirely insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris accord.

This inconsistency is troubling, but even more troubling is the observation that we do not yet have a plan. We have the promise of a global carbon price across all of Canada, and that is a step in the right direction. However, in the context of what needs to be done, as Arnold Chan said, we need to make this an all-encompassing priority. That means we do not approve one project that increases greenhouse gas emissions, like approving pipelines full of bitumen and diluent, and then claim we can somehow meet the targets even though we have not yet put in place energy efficiency measures, gotten rid of fossil fuel subsidies, nor delivered on a comprehensive plan to avoid going above 1.5o. We need more. We need action.

Jonathan Wilkinson – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Madam Speaker, the government very much agrees, and I personally agree, with the hon. member that this is an urgent and pressing issue that needs to be addressed in an all-encompassing way.

The Government of Canada has made taking action on climate change a very high priority. One of the first things the Minister of Environment and Climate Change did, once appointed, was to lead the Canadian delegation to the successful achievement of the Paris Agreement. Our government committed to an ambitious greenhouse gas emissions target. We then worked actively with our partners in the provinces, territories, and with indigenous leaders to develop the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change. This is a detailed plan that provides a well-defined path through which we will achieve the target.

The previous Harper government set greenhouse gas reduction targets, but never developed a plan nor did the work required to meet them. That hurt Canada’s credibility at home and around the world and was unhelpful in the context of developing an international consensus. Step one for us is to show that when we set a target, we mean it. Two years after Paris, we have a lot to show for our efforts. We are introducing new legislation and regulations to ensure that a price on carbon pollution will apply across the country. The government is accelerating the phase-out of traditional coal-fired electricity units. We are establishing a clean fuel standard to reduce our emissions by incentivizing the use of lower carbon fuels, energy sources, and technologies. We are developing increasingly stringent model building codes so that all new homes will be built to a standard that will allow them to generate as much energy as they use.

We have made significant investments to support clean growth and innovation. In December, we invested more than $1 billion in the low-carbon economy fund, which will help the provinces in their fight against climate change.

We are also investing over $2.3 billion to support clean technology and innovation and to support the creation of good jobs in growing sectors of our economy. We are 100% committed to achieving our target and to working collaboratively with the international community. On December 9, 2017, we released the first annual progress report on the implementation of the pan-Canadian framework. This report highlights the strong progress that federal, provincial, and territorial governments have made in putting the pan-Canadian framework into action. We have made very significant progress, but we know we need to do more. That is part of the Paris Agreement. All countries will need to increase their level of ambition over time.

The pan-Canadian framework establishes a concrete plan to meet or even surpass our commitments under the Paris agreement. The measures we are taking today will have a real and lasting impact on the well-being and resilience of our communities and the environment.

This government will continue to work every day to turn Canada’s clean growth and climate action into new laws, regulations, actions, investments, jobs, and economic opportunities for Canadians.

Elizabeth May

Madam Speaker, here is the problem. The very same target that the hon. member just described as an ambitious target was the one that was put in place by the previous Harper government, which the hon. Minister of Environment described in Paris as the floor and that we could do better. The reality is that achieving our target—and there are large questions about whether we will—means achieving the weak target of 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, which does not get us to what we promised to do in Paris.

This will become glaringly apparent in October of this year when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, as it was asked to do in Paris, on the pathway to 1.5°C. That moment of ratcheting up that the hon. member mentioned, the fact that we all have to do better, and I mean all countries on earth, could be led by Canada by going into the next Conference of the Parties prepared to say that we are stepping up and that we are going to move that 2030 deadline to 2025, because Canada wants to be a leader in reality, not just rhetoric.

Jonathan Wilkinson – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Madam Speaker, as the hon. member knows, Canada has a history, under governments of all political stripes, of establishing targets and not meeting those targets because no clear and comprehensive plan was developed. This government took the very firm position that we would establish a target. We would work with our provincial and territorial counterparts and with indigenous leaders across the country to develop a detailed plan that would enable Canadians to have visibility about how we will achieve our targets. We will work very hard to ensure that those are achieved and to the extent that we can make progress more quickly, we are certainly willing to ratchet up our level of ambition.

This government cares very much about climate change and ensuring a good future for our children and grandchildren. It is something we are committed to and we look forward to working with all parties in the House, including the hon. member, to ensure we actually play our part in this important international issue.

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Mr. Speaker, now that the Prime Minister has clarified, for the second time, the Der Spiegel story and has clearly said that he never asked Chancellor Merkel to remove references to the Paris accord from the G20 summit declaration, let me flip it to the affirmative and ask the Prime Minister to confirm that Canada will stand with Germany and insist that commitment to the Paris accord be in the G20 final declaration.

Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister

Mr. Speaker, yes, we will. We remain steadfastly committed to the Paris accords. Our environment minister and our government were instrumental in making sure that the Paris accords became a reality. We will continue to push for the respect and the support for Paris in the G7 communiqué, as we did, and also in the G20 coming in Hamburg.

I would like to take this moment also to congratulate the Conservative Party for recognizing that climate change is real and for supporting the Paris accords as well. It is an important moment for Canada as we see unanimously the need to move forward with real action to reduce our carbon emissions.

I look forward to hearing—

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