“Our promise is weaker than most major European commitments and weaker than that of the United States,” Environmental Defense Program Director Keith Brooks told CTVNews.ca of Toronto.  “Canada’s plan to reduce emissions is the most detailed climate plan the country has ever had, yet it comes up with a magical idea that oil production could increase by almost a million barrels a day while emissions are falling.” .
Published on Monday by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the huge new report states that without further action, the planet will be between 2.4 ° C and 3.5 ° C warmer by the end of the century, a fact which could expose much of the world to serious effects such as drought and fires.  Paris’s goal is to keep global warming well below 2 ° C and ideally at 1.5 ° C.
The IPCC says this goal can still be achieved if people step up their efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and reach zero zero carbon emissions by the early 2050s.
“It’s now or never if we want to reduce global warming to 1.5 ° C,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of the team that drafted the UN report.  “Without immediate and profound reductions in emissions in all sectors, it will be impossible.”
“WE MUST INCREASE OUR AMBITIONS”
The 3,675-page report was created by 278 authors from 65 countries and approved by the governments of the 195 IPCC members, including Canada.  In a statement released Monday, Environment Secretary Steven Gilbot thanked the Canadians for their contribution.
“Science shows that it is vital that countries do more to tackle climate change and maintain the goal of the Paris Agreement to reduce the temperature rise to 1.5 ° C achievable and at a faster time,” Guilbeault said. .  “We must increase our ambition to avoid catastrophic climate change and take full advantage of the economic opportunities presented by ambitious action.”
Last week, the federal government unveiled a new emission reduction plan that aims to reduce emissions by at least 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, with the ultimate goal of achieving a net zero emissions by 2050. The plan also predicts 100 percent of all new vehicles will be electric by 2035.
“Canada is warming at twice the world rate and up to three times the world average in the north,” Guilbeault said.  “It is crucial for the economic and social well-being of Canada to take swift action to combat climate change.”
“NON-PROOFS AND NOTIFIED ART-CORRECTIONS”
Brooks of Environmental Defense says Canada’s emissions plan is largely based on future technology and should instead focus on phasing out fossil fuel production and use.
“The most worrying thing is that Canada predicts a significant increase in the amount of oil produced in this country, although at the same time, emissions are expected to be significantly reduced thanks to a large amount of carbon capture and storage – an expensive measure that is not ».  “It does not happen on a scale anywhere in the world,” Brooks explained.  “Relying on unproven and speculative corrections would be a gamble with our lives.”
Eddy Perez is the Director of International Diplomacy at Climate Action Network Canada.
“Avoiding short-term action based on long-term plans that assume that somehow, somewhere, someone will remove our emissions from the atmosphere in large quantities at some point in the future is dangerous,” Perez told CTVNews.ca from Montreal.
Like Brooks, Perez says Canada’s climate plans need to focus on the country’s biggest greenhouse gas emissions: the fossil fuel industry.
“We can not forget that Canada is the only G7 country whose emissions have increased since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015,” said Perez, who previously worked at the IPCC.  “We can not be a climate leader if we are not able to tackle the sector that is destroying every opportunity we have to build a secure future.”
With archives from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press