Submission to Canada’s public engagement on the 2035 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target

Canada has a long record of failing to achieve its international climate commitments. These include the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) collective goal of returning to 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2000, Canada’s legally binding Kyoto Protocol target of 6% under 1990 levels by 2012, and its political target announced at the Copenhagen conference of achieving a 17% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020. Rather, national emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) rose 21% between 1990 and 2020, from 602 to 730 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) per year.1 The ongoing public engagement on the 2035 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target offers a momentous opportunity to that Canadian society cannot afford to ignore if it is ever going to close the gap between its international commitments and its actions. Building on my research at Toronto Metropolitan University as member of the International Law & Global Justice Initiative (ILGJ), my previous post-doctoral research at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG) and a recent piece that I published in The Conversation, I would like to provide the following three submissions to your consultation. March 27th, 2024