Nunavut MP talks climate change in Berlin

The graph, produced by the World Resources Institute, shows the world’s top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases — in absolute terms. Canada is the ninth largest emitter, well below China, the United States and the European Union. But in per capita terms, Canada, the United States and Russia are the top three. (IMAGE COURTESY OF WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE)

Following her May 15 announcement of new greenhouse gas emission targets for Canada, Canada’s environment minister, Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq, will remain in Berlin until May 20 for informal climate talks with G7 leaders and others this week.

Those talks overlap with a big policy event in Germany called the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.

At that meeting, government ministers and other representatives from more than 35 countries are expected to share their positions on greenhouse gas reductions in advance of COP21, the United Nations climate change conference to be held in Paris at the end of this year. German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande are expected to attend.

Aglukkaq, who flew to those meetings May 17, said she’ll use the occasion to defend Canada’s record on greenhouse gas emissions and help work towards an international deal to cut GHGs.

“I am looking forward to taking part in this week’s meetings in Berlin to highlight Canada’s actions to address climate change. Canada will continue to push for a new international climate agreement that includes commitments from all major emitters,” she said in a news release.

This past Friday, Aglukkaq announced the emissions target that Canada will take to the Paris climate summit this December, calling the target “fair and ambitious.”

The bureaucratic jargon term for that target is “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution,” or INDC, which represents the commitment that each nation state is expected to bring.

Under the target announced last week, Canada will promise to bring its greenhouse gas emissions down to 30 per cent below the country’s 2005 levels by 2030.

That move appears to be an attempt to stay close to the United States position, which President Barack Obama announced March 31.

At that time, Obama promised the U.S. will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025, five years earlier than Canada’s target date.

Canada’s emissions promises include new crackdowns on methane, nitrogen-based fertilizers and natural gas-fired electricity plants. That includes a promise to create new regulations aimed at curbing methane released by the oil and gas sector.

Methane accounts for only about 14 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

But as a contributor to the greenhouse effect that causes climate change, methane punches far above its weight.

Though a given quantity of methane will disappear from the atmosphere in about 12 years, its warming effect is estimated to be 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas.

“Action in this area would lead to significant reductions in emissions while ensuring Canadian companies remain competitive,” Aglukkaq’s department said in a backgrounder.

But the Canadian targets do not address carbon dioxide emissions released by oil and gas production, which in Canada includes the Alberta oil sands.

So despite the big commitment on methane reduction, environmental groups have criticized Aglukkaq’s targets for not going far enough.

“Controlling greenhouse gases like methane and nitrogen oxides are important, but Canada needs to go further than planned in controlling all greenhouse gases. Canada has refused to regulate carbon pollution from the oil sands, the fastest growing source of carbon emissions in Canada,” the Climate Action Network said in a news release.

The Climate Action Network, a coalition that brings together numerous organizations, also accused Ottawa of padding its emissions targets through offsets.

Those offsets include making use of Canada’s huge forests — which absorb carbon dioxide — and purchasing emissions credits by spending money to help other countries reduce their emissions.

Canada’s earlier emissions target, agreed to in December 2009 at the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent of 2005 levels by 2020.

But an Environment Canada report issued this past October suggested Canada is unlikely to meet that target, mostly because of rising carbon dioxide emissions from the oil sands.

However, greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks and motorcycles dropped, as did emissions from the electricity sector.

The federal government, in a background document, bragged that in 2013, Canada’s emissions were 3.1 per cent lower than 2005 levels, while the economy grew by 12.9 per cent.

Canada is also playing up its record on electricity generation, saying that almost 80 per cent of Canada’s electricity is generated without emitting any greenhouse gas emissions.

And Canada will also contribute $300 million to the international Green Climate Fund to help developing countries meet their emissions targets and has spent $1.2 billion on clean energy projects in more than 65 countries.

The target that Aglukkaq announced also promises new regulations to reduced nitrogen oxide emissions from fertilizers and new regulations for electrical generating plants fired by natural gas.