Detailed plan to meet emissions targets coming in 'months': environment minister
CTV
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says a detailed plan showing how Canada might finally meet a greenhouse gas emissions target will be ready in a few months but not likely in time for this fall's global climate change conference in Scotland.
Wilkinson is in Milan this week for meetings with his global counterparts to set the final agenda for negotiations that will take place at the full United Nations climate change meetings in Glasgow in early November.
The meeting, known as Conference of the Parties, or COP, is to happen annually, but the Glasgow conference was delayed a year because of COVID-19. That delay also pushed back the 2020 deadline for countries to submit more ambitious emissions-cutting targets.
"Canada, as you know, has raised its target, as have the United States and Europe, but there are many countries that have not yet and that's part of what we're going to be working to encourage greater ambition," Wilkinson said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
A United Nations report two weeks ago said where pledges currently stand, emissions will be 16 per cent higher globally by 2030, pushing global warming close to 2.7 C by 2100. The Paris agreement said it must be kept as close to 1.5 C as possible to avoid catastrophic climate change.