Draft:SDG 13 for Canada

What are SDGs: In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) disclosed the Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aiming to address pressing environmental and societal challenges and to create a better world. Most of the proposed goals are intended to end poverty, promote everyone on the earth healthy and well-being since we humans are all looking for a world with wealth and developed industry, however, we always forget our behaviors are destroying this planet, this makes building and protecting a better planet is also one of the tough tasks. Already, with more than 1.1 degrees C (2 degrees F) of global temperature rise, changes to the climate system have negatively impacted the region we live in through from rising sea levels to more extreme weather events to rapidly disappearing sea ice.

Goal 13: Climate action:

SDG 13 is to: "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy."

General description of SDG 13: The SDG 13 is one of the sustainable goals focuses on climate action and aims to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy.

Canada’s challenges dealing with climate changes:

1. Best estimates of global average annual temperature increase over the next century range from 1.8–4.0°C (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007).However, these values correspond to a warming of 2.0–5.0°C in the annual temperature and a 5–30% increase in annual precipitation in southern Canada, which are a little bit higher than those all over the world. (Christensen et al. 2007).

2. Fire is one of the most dominant problems towards the Canadian boreal forest. During the past 80 years, millions ha of forest have been burnt, the burning process causes increasing greenhouse gases emissions, which will lead to climate changes and contribute to an increased area burned in the near future. (Amiro, B. D. et al, 2001)

Targets of SDG 13: The goal is to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of countries around the world in response to the hazards and natural disasters related to climate change. Countries should integrate climate change into national policies and strategic planning and enhance education and outreach on climate change mitigation among the general population.

Issues on climate changes we are facing globally: The most recent global warming speed: The rate of warming has more than tripled since 1982, now averaging about 0.20°C per decade. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts that by 2028, there is an 86% likelihood that at least one year will surpass the 1.5°C threshold temporarily. (WMO, 2023)

Canada’s climate plans and targets

The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy is part of Canada’s strategy to meet its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

Key components of the plan:

1. Economy-wide: a series of strategies to reduce emissions: carbon pricing, clean fuels, and reducing methane emissions, will enable reducing in the most flexible and cost-effective way.

2. Buildings: focuses heavily on reducing emissions from buildings, as they are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, primarily due to heating and cooling systems that rely on fossil fuels.

3. Electricity: energy across Canada is expected to be cleaner and electricity supply to be more reliable and affordable. This helps reduce emissions from other sectors, like industry, buildings, and transportation.

4. Heavy industry: targets some of the most energy-intensive sectors, including fuel, mining, manufacturing, and cement production which are significant contributors to national greenhouse gas emissions, and aims to drastically reduce their carbon footprint while supporting economic growth and competitiveness.

5. Oil and gas: transform the most common fuel into cleaner one providing lower carbon and non-emitting energy products while providing more job opportunities for Canadians.

6. Transportation: enable cleaner public transit, more active transportation, make it more affordable and accessible, and provide cleaner modes of air, marine, and rail travel, this will also create new jobs.

7. Agriculture: using clean technologies on farms and create opportunities to make the farmland store more carbon, support farmers build a greener farm to reduce emissions.

8. Waste: cut pollution for waste increase the value of waste emissions from transforming materials into renewable ones, this also provide new job opportunities.

9. Nature-based solutions: reduce emissions while bringing co-efficient to society and make effort to protect Canada’s lands and waters from climate risks.

What Canada has already done: 1. Published proposed Clean Fuel Regulations, made investments to grow the clean fuels market. 2. Focusing on building not only reduce emissions but also create economic opportunities through green jobs and sustainable development. 3. Accelerated the phase-out of coal, implemented natural gas regulations and put a price on carbon pollution. 4. Launched huge amount of money to invest in clean technology, research and demonstration in Canadian energy, mining and forestry sectors. 5. Established federal regulations requiring the oil and gas sector to reduce methane emissions by 40-45% below 2012 levels by 2025. 6. Encourage the adoption of Zero-Emission Vehicles, provide money in funding to support public and active transportation infrastructure to use ZEVs across Canada. 7. Committed to set a national fertilizer emission reduction target of 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. 8. New federal regulations are developed to increase the reuse rate and ban on harmful single use plastics.

Net-Zero Emissions by 2050: In 2021, Canada passed the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, committing to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This includes setting five-year targets to track progress.

Net-Zero Advisory Body: In February 2021, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change announced the Net-Zero Advisory Body. The NZAB focused on three lines of inquiry: net-zero governance, net-zero industrial policy, and net-zero energy systems.

The Net-Zero Challenge: committed to a clean future, encourages businesses around the world to transit to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Adapting to climate change in Canada: Canada is facing with a range of climate impacts, including rising temperatures, increased frequency of extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and changes to ecosystems. In 2022, the National Adaptation Strategy was launched to provide a comprehensive framework for climate resilience. By focusing on non-natural disaster, ecosystem restoration, and collaboration with Indigenous groups, Canada aims to reduce the risks posed by climate change while ensuring economic and social stability.

Examples of progress on SDG 13 in Canada:

1. Carbon Pricing: has implemented a carbon pricing system that is one of the key drivers of reducing emissions in the country. The federal government’s carbon tax was introduced in 2019 and designed to increase the cost of emitting carbon dioxide. It came into effect at $20 per tonne in 2019 and is scheduled to go up another $15 each year until 2030, when it reaches $170 a tonne. (CBC News, 2024)

2. Renewable Energy Transition: makes significant progress on transmitting the energy to renewable and cleaner energy resources, including hydro, wind, and solar power, leading Canada’s continued energy transition. (Government of Canada, 2024)

3. Cleaner Production and Emission Reductions: Waste disposal, particularly at sea or in landfills, often results in the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), both potent greenhouse gases. Christian-Robinson and Kerton(2024) proved the use of waste materials from aquaculture (specifically, blue mussel shells) can create a bio-derived calcite material for wastewater treatment. Also, this bio-derived material can be used as an alternative to more carbon-intensive adsorbents.