Halfway to where?

Recently, we’ve heard a lot of boasting that Canada is halfway to our 2020 climate change goal for cutting carbon pollution.

But the math doesn’t add up.

We are not halfway to our 2020 climate goal.  What the government means is: In 2020, we will be halfway to our 2020 carbon reduction goal. That’s like me saying, “I’m halfway” to a 9 a.m. appointment, but what I mean is, “I will be halfway” to the appointment at 9 a.m. It’s misleading, and in the climate context, outright dangerous.

First and foremost, Canada’s 2020 target is already too low. It is far from the ambitious cuts that science demands we make to carbon emissions if we want any hope of keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius – something that Canada has committed to time and time again. A world two degrees warmer would have devastating consequences; hotter heat waves, more catastrophic storms, food shortages, and the loss of countless lives and livelihoods across the world.

Secondly, we have no hope of meeting even our weak goal for 2020. Environment Canada releases an annual report on Canada’s emissions trends. The report maps out where the country is headed in terms of greenhouse gas pollution and why. The report examines where (by sector) pollution is going down, where it is going up, and which policies (or lack thereof) are driving these trajectories.

The most recent report is the source of the ‘halfway’ claim. Read the report and it’s clear that with the policies in place, or in the works, to address greenhouse gas pollution, by 2020 we will be only halfway to where we said we would be. We are not halfway to the 2020 target now. We will be halfway there by the time we promised we would fully arrive.

To add insult to injury, the halfway number is compared to where we would be if no one did anything by 2020, rather than 2005, the year the government is supposedly measuring the change in emissions against. Another way to make less sound like much, much more.

The reason that Canada is falling so short is simple: reckless tar sands expansion. Out of control tar sands expansion has prevented meaningful action on climate change from the federal government and is the single most important reason we have become an international laggard on climate change. Canada is currently on track to miss one of the weakest climate goals in the industrialized world and is the only country in the world to sign, and then pull out of the Kyoto Protocol.

Canada is not halfway to anywhere right now when it comes to meaningful action on climate change or addressing dangerous tar sands growth. If anything, we’re going backwards.

Original Article
Source: environmentaldefence.ca
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