New government report on climate points to need for more ambitious policy from elected leaders

Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and increased emissions from oil and gas threaten climate safety.

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (VANCOUVER, BC) — Environment and Climate Change Canada has released Canada’s Changing Climate, the first major report from an ongoing national assessment of how Canada’s climate is changing, and the impacts of these changes. The report concludes that Canada’s annual average temperature over land has warmed by an alarming 1.7°C, with higher temperature increases observed in the northern Canada where temperatures have increased by 2.3°C since 1948.

“This report makes it clear that Canada’s elected leaders must do much more to address the climate crisis,” said Sven Biggs, Climate and Energy Campaigner for Stand.earth, “this election year is the moment when politicians of all stripes must step up and offer ambitious climate policy, that moves us past squabbling about a carbon tax and onto serious talk about how we are going to build a new low carbon economy.”

Today’s report follows on the heels of the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who released their latest and most serious warning yet in the form of their October 2018 report Global Warming of 1.5 ºC. The IPCC says we have just 11 years to reduce carbon pollution by 45% if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. 

“While many sectors of the economy are taking positive steps to reduce carbon pollution, emissions from the oil and gas sector continue to spiral out of control,” said Biggs “if we are going to avoid the disaster that this report describes, we can not allow this industry to continue to grow. That means expansion projects like the Trans Mountain Pipeline cannot go forward.”

Last December while in Katowice, Poland for the United Nations COP 24, climate negotiations, Stand.earth and Environmental Defence Canada released their own report, Canada’s Oil & Gas Challenge, which outlines how the current growth trajectory for oil and gas production in Canada is inconsistent with the country meeting even its existing target.

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Media contacts: 

Sven Biggs, Climate & Energy Campaigner, sven@stand.earth, 778-882-8354