Myth Busting: Why Worry?

Some have claimed that Canadians ‘only’ emit 2% of all global carbon emissions, leading them to ponder why Canada should care to act on climate change. Well, that 2% number, though reasonably accurate, neglects a lot of important detail. Canada actually ranks 9th of all countries for total carbon emissions. In fact, Canada even emits more than Saudi Arabia, France, Poland or the United Kingdom.

While Canadians emit 2% of global carbon emissions, our emissions intensity is even more telling: our emissions intensity is 16.9 (to 22) tons of CO2 per year per capita, greater than that of the United States (15.7), United Kingdom (5.7), or China (7.7). Our small population clearly gives us no advantage given our massive individual emissions. Including emissions from land use and forestry practices, Canada ranks as the worst global emitter of GHG emissions.

Canadians produce three times the GHG emissions of the G20 average, and four times as much GHG emissions in the building and transportation sectors! In other words, Canadians are monster energy gluttons. We are extreme energy wasters, and we have enormous emission reductions to achieve in a very short time span.

Where the average annual fair share of GHG emissions to achieve the 1.5 degree target is 0.3 tons/year and Canadians average 19.4 tons/year, we clearly have a long way to go to reach a fair emissions level. For Canadians, this translates into an immediate decrease of 75% of our GHG emissions, a 93% reduction in emissions by 2030, and a 99% decrease by 2100. We need to pause for a moment just to grasp the urgency and depth of cuts we need today: if we were to stop all fossil powered vehicles today, we might, if lucky, achieve a 30% reduction. In other words, we need to go three times that far in little over a decade. Even the ‘simple’ act of no more vehicles requires enormous interventions by all levels of government to support car-free lifestyles – individuals cannot make these changes alone, and that only gets us one third the way there!

However the Canadian picture is even more dismal, since total carbon budget to meeting the Paris Agreements 2.0 degree limit (not even the 1.5 degree target), is the total sum of all carbon emissions emitted by a country based on their population. This measure shows Canada has blown through its carbon budget long ago, meaning "anything Canada emits now is unequivocally an inequitable overuse of its already unfair share of atmospheric capacity." In other words, we owe a debt to most countries; a non-financial debt, one that is being paid for in lives lost, social and political instability, migration, displacement and war, just to satisfy our excessive, heavily manufactured, lifestyles. Canada is no longer the environmental leader our reputations are built on; we are environmental laggards. It is unimaginable to think of complaining about 4 cents per litre in this reality.

So, why should Canadians and Saulites worry about taking climate action? We should worry, because for Canada 2% might seem like a small number but it has huge implications. The impending levels of dramatic action will re-write the global economy as we know it. As the hippy-dippy weather man reported: “The radar is picking up a line of thundershowers extending from… However, the radar is also picking up a squadron of Russian ICBMs, so I wouldn’t sweat the thundershowers.” Best not to belly-ache about a few cents per litre of gasoline or a couple dollars on our heating bills. Better to start planning for the financial, ethical and health disruptions about to be imposed on us by climate changes.

In 1984, when Canada was only 0.6% of the world population we enacted the Canada Health Act. Today many countries around the world have universal health care. If Canada with a population well under 2% didn't care about health, we would never have led the world in the development of essential healthcare. Canada contributed less than two per cent of the allied war effort in the Second World War, and unarguably, our leadership made an important difference. Our high intensity of emissions, leadership role globally, wastefulness and many other factors are powerful arguments that Canada, especially, should be making very very deep cuts, and moving very very fast to do so. The fact that we are not acting responsibly, or historically matching how we pulled our weight to make the world a better place, is why Canadians and Saultites should worry.