The federal government isn’t measuring what policies are working in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a report released Thursday morning from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.
The commissioner’s spring reports also took Ottawa to task for falling behind on its pledge to plant two billion trees by 2031 and for failing to adequately protect species at risk of extinction.
Commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco said in his audit that Environment and Climate Change Canada’s failure to assess policies could lead to problems in Canada’s efforts to fight climate change.
“Without comprehensive impact information, the federal government does not know whether it is using the right tools to sufficiently reduce emissions to meet its target,” DeMarco said in a news release.
The Trudeau government has set a target of reducing GHG emissions by 40 to 45 per cent of 2005 levels, and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The government’s latest emissions data shows that Canada emitted 670 million megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021, which was up slightly from 2020 but below pre-pandemic levels.
The commissioner’s review found Environment and Climate Change Canada relies on a modelling approach to look at whether its broad efforts to reduce emissions is working, and as a result couldn’t say whether individual regulations were effective.
The report said it’s particularly troubling that the government doesn’t know how much efforts to reduce methane emissions are contributing to emissions reductions.
“This is worrying because methane has 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period,” the report says.
“We found large sources of methane emissions were unaccounted for in inventories and not covered by any existing regulations.”
The report goes on to say that when the commissioner’s office did its own analysis of certain policies, it found mixed results. It said measures to reduce emissions in power generation met their goals, but some measures to reduce vehicle emissions fell short — partially because increased emissions from large vehicles like school buses and dump trucks counteracted emissions reductions from smaller vehicles.
Government stumped on tree planting goal
DeMarco said in a separate report Thursday that the government is unlikely to meet its goal of planting two billion trees by 2030 unless it makes big changes to the program.
The audit found that while the program nearly met its 2021 tree planting goal, it didn’t come close in 2022. Government departments also could not provide the commissioner with clear information on the relationship between forests and GHG emissions.
“I must stress how important it is that we do not give up and that we, instead, change course to successfully implement solutions such as the 2 Billion Trees Program and also work to get a full picture of how our forests affect greenhouse gas emissions,” DeMarco said in a news release.
The program is the result of a Liberal promise in the 2019 federal election campaign.
DeMarco also criticized the government for a lack of action on species at risk of extinction. His audit found that of 520 species labelled at risk since 1982, 80 per cent had either no change in status or had entered a higher risk category.