Climate Change

The UNFCCC was established in 1994 to address climate change at an international level. Since then, the parties to the convention (including the EU) meet annually in Conferences of the Parties. The Kyoto Protocol (1997) set an obligation for developed countries to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through setting national targets, using 1990 as a base level. The UK has been one of only a few countries to comply with the international obligation and has reduced GHG emissions since 1990.

The reason I chose this issue is because throughout this course, I’ve been very passionate about climate change and I really wanted my last project to take the same focus as well. Additionally, there are many reasonable policies like carbon taxes, which will truly help Canada become more environmentally sustainable. However, many citizens are still not convinced about the urgency of climate change and I’d like to change their minds.

The UNFCCC is working with the various governments around the world to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere to keep the planet from warming more than 2ºC above pre-industrial temperatures (Watts, 2015). The most noted of the work is the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings that began with COP1 in Berlin back in 1995. The COP3 adopted the Kyoto Protocol, even though it wasn’t fully accepted by all member nations. The COP21 was an effort to legally bind members to their submitted plans of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), defining what level of greenhouse gas production each nation would commit to not exceeding from 2025-2030. Prior to the INDCs, a bleak outlook was forecast in 2009-2010 of global temperature rising between 4-5ºC. That figure was restated by the UNFCCC prior to the COP21 in Paris, to below 3ºC, due to the commitments of the INDCs (Watts, 2015).

The government responsible to take charge for this issue are global, federal and provincial. As a planet, we must coalesce with each other to find solutions to preserving the planet. World leaders are meeting with each other, discussing ways to fix the damages humans created. The government of Canada is dedicated on working with leaders all over the world to make changes that will help resolve the effects of climate change. Also, Canada is committed to supporting and helping out third world countries who need help in accommodating to the effects of climate change. Investments are being made to reduce emissions as well. The government of Canada and its provinces and territories are uniting together to encounter the effects of climate change. They aim on federal funding, the flexibility to design their own carbon pricing policies on putting a price on carbon and reducing carbon pollution.

The following paper will provide an overview of Canada’s current climate change policy, under the Trudeau administration. Then, an overview of the climate change policy for the Trump administration will be introduced. Finally, Canada’s options in the face of these circumstances will be introduced, along with the decision that should be made for Canada’s future policy on climate change.

Its adoption in 1997 and ratification in 2002 furthered the fight against anthropogenic interference with earth’s climate system. Canada’s commitment began with a goal to reduce GHGs by 6% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012, or 461 megatons (Canada and the Kyoto Protocol 2016). In order to achieve these goals, legal requirements expected policies and measures prepared by the participating countries to reduce GHGs, by utilizing all available mechanisms, including joint implementation to earn emissions reduction units (ERU) to be counted towards the target, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading (Kyoto Protocol 1997). Every year, on the date set forth, every participating country was expected to keep track of emissions limits and performance standards, develop spending or fiscal measures, as well their expectation for the next year and results from the previous (E. Canada 2013). When the first reduction timeline was up in 2008, instead of a decrease in emissions, Canada recorded an increase 24.1 percent higher than 1990 levels. The lack of commitment was superseded by the new government’s ‘Made in Canada” effort to push country-unified laws, though no significant changes were

When it comes to climate change and global warming, Canada makes its voice heard. Leading the world on a mission to reduce climate change is difficult due to a plethora of dubious citizens, but Canada easily pulls off the stunt with science as their secret weapon.

Canada occupies most of the continent of North America and strong actions will be applying to intend to be a climate change leader. Climate change is a global challenge whose impacts will be felt by all countries, impacts that already occurring in different parts of the earth. Climate change one of the sensitive topics that the counties are worried and looking for solutions and Canada wants to be a great leader.

There is something occurring in Canada. You may have lived here all your life and seen it or haven’t never even thought about it once. Over the period from 1948 to 2013 the annual temperature in Canada has warmed by 1.6[Symbol]C {Government of Canada, 2015}. Along with that, the arctic region of Canada has been warming four times faster than the rest of the planet since the 1970’s {Feket, J 2014 & McDonald, B 2014}. The glaciers are also melting too. The Melville Icecap has lost 13% of its mass since the 1960’s {Feket, J 2015}. With these facts I have come to a thesis regarding this growing Canadian issue, the citizens of Canada, whether or not they are running the government or helping Canadian businesses grow, they need to do more about

The UNFCCC should implement better ways for all nations to eventually fall under the 1990 emissions levels. Working slowly towards the goal is a better way to approach the problem rather than giving the nations targets that are very hard to achieve in the first place. Canada had the responsibility to fall 6% below the 1990 emissions levels, but instead went -23.4. Which basically means, for example, if a nation had a target of -10%, but actually increased emissions by 10%, the score would be -20, if it was 5% and the nation went 15% under, then the score is 10. Canada went -23.4 which was the worst score out of all the other nations within the agreement at the time. In any case, it was verifiably a vital initial phase in worldwide climate diplomacy. The question is whether a more aspiring second step will follow so as to stay away from unsatisfactory dangers of destroying environmental

The climate change impacts of greenhouse gases threaten the economic development and environmental quality. These threats indicate that all nations regardless their economic growth should work collaboratively to reduce the emission to a certain level. Hare et al. (2011) argued that “climate change is a collective action problem” thus requires a global coordination from all countries. This indicates that actions from several countries would never be sufficient to address the climate change problem. If a global target to limit warming to 2°C or below is about to achieve (UNFCCC 2010, p.4) a broad range of participation is required (Hare et al., 2011). However, the increasing complexity of negotiation processes is inevitable. Each country will pursue its own interests during the

“The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a)

Did you know that Climate change is affecting people all around the world? Climate change is a very bad thing that has been going on for hundreds of years. So many things are being affected by climate change. Things that are being affected are trees, plants, animals, and even people. One reason that climate change is happening is that the earth is always in orbit so the climate is always changing. Climate change isn’t only nature, climate change is caused from humans, the sun, and animals. We are causing climate change by burning things. Scientists predicted this and they’re using models to predict climate change. Snow leopards in the Himalayas are dieing off. Asian Rhinos depend on floodplain grasslands and climate change changes the seasonal patterns the Rhinos go off of. Orang-utans are also one of the species at risk from deforestation. The ice that the Polar Bears use for homes are slowly starting to melt which means they are becoming more and more crowded.

On December 12 of 2015, 195 countries made history by committing to the first truly global international climate change agreement (Paris Agreement, 2015). This agreement took place in Paris and was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The outcome of the Paris Conference on Climate Change was described as “revolutionary” (Venezuela) “marvelous act” (China) and as “a tremendous collective achievement” (European Union) that introduced a “new era of global climate governance” (Egypt) while “restoring the global community’s faith of accomplishing things multilaterally” (USA) (Paris Agreement, 2015).

Through the eyes of most scientists, global warming is seen as a very serious and severe threat. The actions taken by humans, such as industry and consumption of fossil fuels plus the increase in population and agriculture have played a big part in global warming. If something is not done soon the results could be very bad.