Climate Change In Canada

Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, more extreme weather, worsening global health, mass extinction of organisms – these tragedies are most likely caused by the plight of this generation: human-induced climate change. Climate change is the alteration of long-term weather patterns by human or natural activities (“What is Climate Change?”, 2017). Since 1880, the Earth has warmed by 0.8°C (McKibben, 2012) because activities like burning fossils fuels have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere; gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and water vapour prevent the sun’s heat from escaping the planet. In 2015, the total amount of globally emitted CO2 was 36.2 billion tons (Trends in Global CO2 Emissions 2016 Report,

This essay will analyze Canada’s approach to meet its INDC in international and national contexts, and explain several provinces’ reactions toward it. It will conclude with personal recommendations on how Canada can improve its INDC

Cover Note INDC and Accompanying Information, 2015). However, in June 2017 President Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement until negotiations were made (Shear, 2017). The United States’ decision represents an abrogation of its responsibility as the world’s second largest emitter. Trump has already halted implementation of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). Both the CPP and CAP both resemble Canada’s Framework, which all grant each state or province the freedom to choose how to meet their specific targets and aim to increase energy efficiency by providing incentives and energy efficiency standards. Despite Trump’s decision, individual states are still combatting climate change. Several northeastern and mid-Atlantic states will lower their cap on carbon emissions by $3 every year (“USA – Climate Action Tracker”, 2017). In some regards, this American dilemma mirrors the Canadian withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. In both scenarios, the federal governments withdrew from environmental agreements due to their economic consequences, and instead provincial and state governments took charge in regard to climate