Canada will fall about 75 per cent short of the greenhouse gas reduction targets it set at Copenhagen unless it makes more cuts, according to new data.
Environment Canada updated its website on Canada’s efforts to fight climate change last week. The updated site shows Canada’s current steps to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions will fall three-quarters short of the target it agreed to reach under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. That accord is a voluntary deal that had about 140 nations, including major emitters like China and the U.S., commit to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Canada agreed to cut its emissions to 17 per cent below 2005 levels, according to Environment Canada. Current federal and provincial actions should cut emissions by 65 megatonnes a year, or “one quarter of the reductions in emissions needed by 2020 to reach the target [total annual emission] level of 607 megatonnes.”
Science research suggests the world will need to reduce its emissions to about 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 in order to prevent more than two degrees of warming, says ZoĂ« Caron, climate policy analyst with World Wildlife Fund Canada. The Copenhagen Accord calls for much less than that and Canada still isn’t meeting it. “We really need to up our game here.”
The federal government has brought in regulations to reduce emissions from the car and electricity sector, according to Environment Canada, and is expected to address emissions from other sectors soon.
The world could save trillions of dollars a year by 2050 by switching to renewable energy, says a new report.
The World Wildlife Fund’s international branch released its Energy Report last week, suggesting the world could get 95 per cent of its energy by 2050 from renewable sources. Doing so would require up to $4.7 trillion a year in investment, but would start saving nations money by 2035. Nations would save about $5.4 trillion a year by 2050 due to rising efficiency and falling fuel use.
Solar power could potentially supply half of the world’s electricity by 2050, the report found, with wind providing another quarter. Geothermal systems could supply up to a third of our space heating.
“We will not be able to meet the needs of our planet’s expected nine billion inhabitants if we continue to use [energy] as wastefully as we do today,” the report says. Efficiency measures, such as a move towards better cooking stoves and net-zero homes, could reduce global energy use to 15 per cent below 2005 levels by 2050.
These estimates are based entirely on ramping up proven technology, says WWF Canada climate analyst Josh Laughren. “The technology is there and the feasibility is there if we choose as a society to quickly ramp up the take-up.”
But that investment would not be without challenges, he says. The world would need about 1.1 million more wind turbines, for example, which could harm migrating birds if improperly sited. Air travel and industrial processes would also be fuelled by biomass, which could cause food shortages if farmed unsustainably. Developed nations would have to cut meat consumption by half in order to get the land needed for biofuels, the report found.
Even a partial shift to renewable power would lead to great reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, Laughren said. “We need to get moving now if we’re going to get anywhere down the line.”
The full report is available at www.panda.org.
