1. Introduction
2. Setting the stage for a new approach
3. Principles for Environmental Sustainability
4. The Issues:
1. Energy
2. Wild Species and Spaces
3. Oceans
4. Water
5. Food and Agriculture
6. Human Health and Toxic Chemicals
7. Economic Signals
5. Conclusion

The Full Report

The Issues: Energy

Global warming is the single biggest challenge facing humanity today. For Canada, leadership on climate change will require changing the way we produce and use energy.

As a northern country, Canada is particularly vulnerable to global warming. Canada's Arctic landscape and people are already being severely affected by rising temperatures. Arctic sea ice, once considered permanent, is melting -- the Northwest Passage was ice-free for the first time in the summer of 2007. The animals that depend on Arctic ecosystems, such as polar bears, are in danger of dying out as their living space changes beyond recognition. The sustainability of northern communities is threatened.

Worldwide, unchecked climate change has the potential to devastate human lives through water shortages, famines due to crop failures, and the spread of diseases. These impacts could severely disrupt the world's economy and threaten the security of nations as millions of devastated people migrate in search of better lives. Global warming is a humanitarian crisis as much as it is an environmental catastrophe.

To avoid such catastrophic consequences, we must use less energy to meet our needs through efficiency and conservation and shift to energy sources that do not emit carbon into the atmosphere. We need to decentralize our energy system in order to move away from large wasteful mega-projects to smaller more efficient local generation Unsustainable and unclean coal and nuclear energy are not the solution in terms of energy supply or carbon emissions. In fact, all of Canada's energy needs can be met through existing technologies that do not result in a toxic legacy.

In Canada, one-quarter of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions every year come from transportation. The technology exists today to double, and even triple, the fuel efficiency of personal vehicles. Imagine the savings on gasoline if the average new car in Canada used four litres to cover 100 kilometres instead of eight. Imagine homes that used 60 percent less energy for heating and cooling than today's homes and provided power to the grid from roof-mounted solar-energy systems. Imagine our industries leading the world in greenhouse gas pollution solutions. Imagine a phase-out of electricity from dirty coal and nuclear fission with its radioactive and toxic wastes. The climate would benefit, our communities would be healthier, and our economy would be more sustainable. All of this is possible if we make the right policy choices.

In fact, Canada can become a "Sustainable Energy Superpower." To do so, Canada must act swiftly to implement a comprehensive package of policy measures, including taxes, incentives, regulations and education programs that will lead to deep national greenhouse gas emission reductions of 25 percent below the 1990 level by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Canada's Energy Action Agenda:

• By 2009, set a price on GHG emissions as the centrepiece of a Climate Action Plan, starting with a price no lower than $30/tonne CO2e in 2009 and increasing to $50/tonne by 2015, and to $75 a tonne by 2020. This price should be applied broadly in the Canadian economy, either through a tax or through a cap-and-trade system with a rapidly increasing proportion of permits auctioned. In either case, the revenues raised should be directed mainly towards investments in further actions to reduce GHG emissions, and also used to offset any related cost increases for low-income Canadians.
• Immediately recommit Canada to making genuine best efforts to meet its legal obligations under the Kyoto Protocol in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, with the understanding that penalties may be imposed on Canada for falling short of its 2008-2012 emissions reduction target.
• Immediately demonstrate Canadian leadership in the post-2012 round of international climate negotiations by committing to, and showing convincing progress towards, a 25 per cent reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions from the 1990 level by 2020, and an 80 percent reduction from the 1990 level by 2050. Within six months, publish a Climate Action Plan clearly capable of meeting Canada's 2020 target of a 25 per cent cut in GHG emissions from the 1990 level that includes aggressive objectives and policies, with implementation timelines, for each significant GHG source in Canada.

• Within six months, adopt a Sustainable Energy Strategy that is fully integrated with the Climate Action Plan. The Strategy must aim at a wholesale transformation of Canada's economy to maximize energy conservation, energy efficiency and the use of low-impact renewable energy. The Strategy must include targets to reduce Canada's energy use by 20 percent (relative to the 2005 level) and increase low-impact renewable electricity capacity to 35,000 MW, both by 2020. Key elements of the strategy must include:

  • An Energy Efficiency Action Plan to implement a coordinated package of regulations, financial incentives, capacity-building measures and government procurement for each major energy-using sector;

  • Updated and regulated fuel-efficiency standards for personal vehicles benchmarked against leading jurisdictions around the world and that meet or exceed North American best practice;

  • A Renewable Energy Action Plan that provides financial incentives and capacity-building measures designed to make Canada a world leader in the production of low-impact renewable sources of electricity, heat and fuels by 2020;

  • A Nuclear Accountability Plan that includes legislation requiring full-cost accounting of nuclear energy; fully shifts the liability and cost of insurance for nuclear power and long-term waste disposal facilities onto electricity rates; moves oversight of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission from Natural Resources Canada (where the department is in a conflict of interest overseeing sales and safety of reactors) to Environment Canada; and eliminates all direct and indirect taxpayer subsidies to nuclear energy.

• Immediately set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality in the operations of the federal government through improved energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles, renewable energy projects, avoided air travel, and high-quality carbon offset projects.

For further information:

• Pembina Institute (2007) Analysis of the Government of Canada's April 2007 Greenhouse Gas Policy Announcement
• Greenpeace (2007) Energy [r]evolution – a sustainable world energy outlook
• Greenpeace (2007) The Economics of Nuclear Power
• Sierra Club of Canada (2007) Planetary Citizen's Guide to the Global Climate Negotiations
• Sierra Club of Canada (2007) Stopping Global Warming: Towards a Low-Carbon Canada
• Pollution Probe (2005) Greenhouse Gas and Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Standards for Canada
• David Suzuki Foundation and Climate Action Network, Canada (2002) Kyoto and Beyond – The Low-Emission Path to Innovation and Efficiency

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