Despite words on paper, Nunavut lacks climate change plan

Nunavut isn’t doing enough to prevent or deal with climate change, says a report that looks at provincial and territorial action on climate change.

“All over the map,” a 50-page report released this week by the David Suzuki Foundation, compares the greenhouse gas emissions of all provinces and territories, assesses their climate change plans and evaluates their records.

And the report concludes Nunavut needs to do more, by spelling out exactly how it will achieve its goals.

Nunavut produces “relatively low greenhouse gas emissions,” but the report says Nunavut needs a detailed climate change plan. Nunavut also needs greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, particularly for all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles, which produce a high level of climate-warming greenhouse gases in their exhaust.

Nunavut’s former department of sustainable development produced a climate change strategy in October 2003, which promised to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, identify and monitor climate change impacts, and develop ways of adapting to change.

A year later, Nunavut followed up this strategy with a memorandum of understanding on climate change with the federal government. Nunavut was the first jurisdiction in Canada to do this.

But the report says this MOU wasn’t detailed or specific enough.

“This is somewhat surprising, given the wide-ranging impacts of climate change that have been documented in Canada’s north.”

In the MOU, Nunavut agreed to:

* Reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions through energy conservation, management and efficiency, and alternative or renewable energy development;
* Promote technologies that address climate change;
* Look at making these new efforts economically viable;
* Set up monitoring mechanisms for climate change;
* Increase public awareness;
* Increase knowledge of climate change.

To improve on this MOU, the report says Nunavut should:

* Develop a climate change plan, which addresses both greenhouse gas emission reductions and adaptation to climate change;
* Create policies to reduce emissions from off-road vehicles.

As many Nunavut communities rely on expensive diesel power, the report also suggests Nunavut’s power system could be complemented with renewable power to create a hybrid system.

“But few have undertaken such projects,” notes the report.

The report also recommends strengthening Canada’s northern strategy, which the three territorial premiers released in December 2004. One of its environmental goals is “mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change impacts.”

The report notes the Yukon is the only jurisdiction in Canada where emissions have decreased due to a mine closure, but the territory has no MOU or climate change plan.

The report suggests the Northwest Territories needs policies to address emissions from off-road vehicles. The report says the NWT should scrap the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project, and develop a sustainable energy and economic development strategy instead.

Quebec needs to set timelines and polices for greenhouse gas emission reductions: “Without these guidelines, plans are merely vague promises that something will be done without any accountability to ensure timely success or report failure.”

Canada agreed to decrease its emissions of greenhouse gases in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, Canada must cut its greenhouse gases six per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

However, data from Nunavut and the NWT, cited by the report, show their collective emissions have grown 15 per cent between 1990 and 2003.

The report says “every corner” of Canadian society needs to work to reduce emissions. It says the federal government’s climate change plan, released in April 2005, was a step in this direction because it included a $3-billion Partnership Fund to work with provinces and territories on climate change.

But the report says voluntary measures don’t work. It suggests mandatory measures to improve the fuel efficiency of personal vehicles, more funding for public transit, new building codes, and more development of sustainable energy.

Quebec’s greenhouse emissions are still the lowest in the country, largely due to its hydroelectric projects in northern Quebec. But the report also says Quebec’s plan to build more hydroelectric projects in northern Quebec may result in more greenhouse gas emissions, “something the Quebec government needs to consider before approving more hydro projects.”

Quebec plans to add 2,000 MW of wind power by 2012, in addition to other projects totaling 990 MW. “This is “an impressive commitment,” says the report, given that Canada’s total wind capacity at the end of 2004 was only 444MW.
“If fulfilled, this would make Quebec the undisputed leader in implementing low-impact renewable electricity.”