Environment and Climate Change Canada

Alisdair McLean is not looking for directions. The map marks off a three-kilometre radius around his Ottawa home. If his destination is in that circle, he leaves his car in the driveway and walks. 

Last week, the federal government announced Canada’s 2020 greenhouse gas emissions dropped, in part thanks to trees removing carbon from the atmosphere. However, environmentalists are quick to point out this calculation excludes a huge chunk of emissions from the logging industry.

Although the operation of Bay du Nord will emit less carbon than its oilsands counterparts during production, once that oil is burned, the emissions are all the same.

The federal government has extended its deadline for public feedback on a proposed Metro Vancouver shipping terminal after outcry from scientists, MPs and the City of Delta.

Ottawa’s clean fuel standard is being designed to help curb transportation sector emissions, but critics say the existing draft text will lock in years of fossil fuel use.

Ottawa wants to know what it would take to convince Canadians to take climate-friendly action and has designed a research unit to uncover the best ways to motivate people to change.

On the first day of Parliament’s new sitting, some of Canada’s federal opposition parties are calling for an emergency debate to tackle the flooding in British Columbia as another atmospheric river is expected to batter the province in the coming days.

Canada’s National Observer asked Jonathan Wilkinson how he will approach his new role as natural resources minister after serving as environment and climate change minister from 2019 to 2021.

Climate Proof Canada says the federal government needs to do more to keep Canadians safe from the impacts of severe weather.

The bill to reorganize government and officially create the Department of the Environment was passed in the House of Commons on May 26, 1971.

“Canada has one of the most emissions-intensive economies in the world,” and achieving net zero by 2050 will “require a major transformation of Canada’s energy system, including a deep decarbonization of energy production and use,” wrote a senior bureaucrat in a memo to the deputy minister.

Dave Korzinski, research director for the Angus Reid Institute, says the data highlights the division among Conservative voters when it comes to climate change.

The grant is supposed to cover the upfront costs of buying 5,000 buses over the next five years. The Canada Infrastructure Bank has also committed $1.5 billion as part of its three-year, $10-billion growth plan specifically for zero-emission buses and related infrastructure.

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says there is no path to eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions that doesn't include phasing out coal power, but critics say Canada's leadership is tainted as long as this country keeps exporting thermal coal.

Assessments of mining activity should not proceed until “access to clean water, housing, and health services have been secured for all upstream and downstream communities from the proposed Ring of Fire," the groups say.