Canada is wrapping up its participation at the Twenty-Seventh United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), more committed than ever to keeping the goal alive of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, supported by Catherine Stewart, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change, and Steven Kuhn, Canada’s Chief Negotiator for Climate Change, and a strong team, met with colleagues from more than 190 countries in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, at a critical time as countries are being devastated by climate events such as historic flooding, as well as rising energy and food crises due to geopolitical instability. Canada came to the table as a fully-committed partner in advancing cooperation and implementation for climate action and is leading by example with the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, the country’s comprehensive sector-by-sector roadmap to achieve its goal to reduce emissions by at least forty percent by 2030, on the road to net zero by 2050.
Negotiations focus on moving the needle on many important climate issues under the Paris Agreement, including mitigation, climate finance, and adaptation. Canada notes many challenges on the topic of loss and damage and heard vulnerable countries on the difficulties they are facing in accessing the resources they need. Canada has engaged, and continues to engage, constructively on loss and damage and is working toward a concrete outcome. Minister Guilbeault will share a statement on the final text decision in the coming days.
Amid the often tough and ongoing negotiations underway, Canada announced many new commitments and investments over the course of the conference, including around emissions reduction, climate financing for the most vulnerable developing nations, and clean energy transition, along with multilateral partnerships.
Canada announced increased cooperation with the United States on reducing oil and gas sector emissions—with a special focus on methane. Cutting oil and gas methane emissions is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat climate change. This is why Canada joined the Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuels and reaffirmed its commitment to reduce methane emissions by at least seventy-five percent by 2030. To help achieve these goals, Canada published a regulatory framework to help to inform consultations and the development of forthcoming stricter oil and gas methane regulations. It also joined the International Methane Emissions Observatory to help monitor and share methane emissions data gathered by satellites.
Canada is committed to helping the world’s most vulnerable combat the impacts of climate change, and announced a number of practical initiatives totalling $84.25 million through its $5.3 billion international climate finance commitment and other sources of funding at COP27. This includes $24 million for critical areas such as loss and damage, access to climate finance, and climate governance and $4 million to help Belize, Grenada, Guyana and Saint Lucia, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean, reduce methane emissions and help them achieve their climate target under the Paris Agreement. Canada remains steadfast in its commitment, including working in partnership to reach the collective goal of mobilizing US$100 billion as soon as possible and through 2025. Canada is proud to have released the Climate Finance Delivery Plan Progress Report with Germany ahead of COP27 to provide further transparency on developed countries’ commitment toward the goal.
Canada continues to advocate for clean energy and is ambitiously pushing for the adoption of carbon pricing globally by rolling out with Chile the Global Carbon Pricing Challenge, launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at COP26. New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are among countries that are considering, or have already made, carbon pricing key to their approach in fighting climate change. Canada announced an additional $16 million in support of the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Implementation to advance the Challenge’s goals, as well as two new initiatives under its $5.3 billion commitment to help developing countries transition to clean energy and drive global ambition.
The relationship between protecting nature, halting biodiversity loss, finding nature-based solutions and climate change was emphasized at COP27. Minister Guilbeault held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other countries and organizations to discuss shared priorities on climate change, as well as nature and biodiversity loss, as Canada prepares to welcome the world to Montréal, Quebec, for the Fifteenth United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity (COP15). The international community cannot delay working together to jointly address these pressing challenges. Canada is ready to welcome the global community this December to come to an agreement on an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework.