Integrity Matters, a report from the UN high-level expert group chaired by former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna, was launched at COP27 last week. Down here at the lower levels, we think its implications should concern, if not even alarm, all Canadians.
So far Canada’s various climate plans and agreements have set emissions targets that balance the production of greenhouse gases against removals from the atmosphere, whether by tree-planting, sequestration or other means. The current plan is that by 2030 we reduce our net emissions by 40-45 per cent from what they were in 2005. But now McKenna’s report is pushing hard, not for offsets, but for absolute reductions in GHG emissions — in other words, for taking much of the “net” out of “net-zero.”
