Climate Change in Canada

With Canada's deep connections to natural resources, the effects of climate change are amplified and being felt across the nation already. Extreme weather events have increased dramatically across the country affecting safety and livelihoods. Coastal erosion has deteriorated habitable land and vital industry on either side of the nation. To address the challenges that Canadians face, federal, provincial, and territorial governments face the task of creating policies that will navigate the country through the climate crisis.

Federal Policies

The Paris Agreement

Since joining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016, the federal government of Canada released the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change – jointly developed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. This framework is a platform for Canadian progress on climate change initiatives, setting a challenging bar for provinces to meet and exceed.

The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act is the federal law that implements a carbon pollution pricing system, composed of two key parts.

Captured above: some of the most extreme effects of climate change facing Canadians across the country.

Captured above: some of the most extreme effects of climate change facing Canadians across the country.

Part 1, administered by the Canada Revenue Agency, applies a fuel charge on 21 types of fuel and combustible waste. Part 2, administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada, introduces an output-based pricing system for industrial facilities. Designed to ensure a price incentive for industrial emitters to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, hoping it will spur innovation while maintaining competitiveness. This is supposed to protect against industrial facilities moving from one region to another to avoid paying a price on carbon pollution.

Tracking progress

<aside> 💡 The following are some of the most significant expenditures on climate-initiatives by the Federal government:

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  1. The Federal government has invested $200 million in the Emerging Renewable Power Program to support renewable power technologies.
  2. More than 1,000 public transit projects are building more than 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations, and have invested in more than 50 projects to support cycling and other forms of active transportation.
  3. The $2 billion Low Carbon Economy Fund to support provinces and territories, as well as municipalities, businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and Indigenous communities and organizations by funding projects that reduce carbon pollution, create jobs, and reduce energy usage.
  4. More than $2.3 billion in funding for clean technology in Canada, including:
    1. $256.3 million for 65 Canadian clean tech companies through SDTC
    2. $40 million for four Canadian clean tech companies through BDC, the first wave of a total of $700 million
  5. Strong performance by Canada’s clean technology sector, including:
    1. An increase in the value of Canada’s clean technology industry of 4.9% over 4 years, from $25.3B in 2013 to $26.7B in 2016
    2. An increase in Canadian clean technology jobs of 1.2% over 4 years, from 175,494 in 2013 to 177,620 in 2016
    3. An increase in Canada’s ranking in the 2017 Global Cleantech Innovation Index (GCII) from 7th in the last index (2014) to 4th place in 2017

Canadian Federal Parties and Their Climate Policies

All the commitments and promises from Canada's federal political parties are sourced from their 2019 platforms; they can also be found here

Liberal Party

Conservative Party