441-01068 (Environment)

Regarding points 1, 4 and 5, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) fully agrees on the urgency of addressing the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Since the Honourable member’s 2021 petition on this same issue (432-01242), the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Egypt in November 2022, and the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which took place in Montreal in December 2022, have demonstrated the increasing global focus on these issues.

Canada took a strong international leadership role in the development of the ambitious new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted by the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity on December 19, 2022, to guide global efforts to 2030 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. The Framework addresses the direct drivers of global biodiversity loss: land- and sea-use change; direct overexploitation; pollution; invasive species; as well as climate change given that we cannot solve the climate crisis without nature, nor can we solve the nature crisis without stabilizing the climate.

Canada has committed to conserve 25% of our lands and waters by 2025 and 30% of each by 2030, working to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 in Canada, achieve a full recovery for nature by 2050 and champion this goal internationally.

This is an ambitious goal.  Since 2015, Canada has increased its conserved terrestrial areas by more than 2%, roughly the size of Italy. As of December 2021, 13.5% of lands and inland waters have been conserved. On the marine side, Canada has conserved 14% of our marine and coastal areas, up from less than 1% in 2015. Budget 2021 investments are setting the stage to support efforts to conserve 30% of land and waters by 2030.

Regarding points 2 and 3, ECCC would like to draw your attention to three targets within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Target 14 speaks to the integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into policies, regulations, planning and development processes within and across all levels of government and across all sectors. Target 16 relates to ensuring that people are encouraged and enabled to make sustainable consumption choices and by 2030, reducing the global footprint of consumption in an equitable manner. Finally, Target 18 relates to identifying and eliminating, phasing out or reforming incentives, including subsidies, which are harmful for biodiversity and scaling up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

With the successful conclusion of the Conference of the Parties (COP) 15, the focus in the coming months will be on the development of Canada’s national biodiversity strategy and action plan to 2030, which will go beyond protected areas to address all aspects of nature conservation and sustainable use. This will include, among other actions, furthering efforts to restore degraded ecosystems and accelerate action for species recovery; continue promoting and using nature-based solutions to better value and conserve Canada’s biodiversity, carbon-rich ecosystems; and, advance work to realign subsidies harmful to biodiversity toward nature-positive outcomes.

Canada is committed to the full implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. As such, the Government has significantly scaled up investments in nature. Beginning in 2023–24, the department of Environment will provide up to $800 million over seven years to support up to four Indigenous-led conservation initiatives. Once completed, these projects could protect up to an additional one million square kilometres.

In Budget 2021, the department of Environment invested $2.3 billion over five years to enable Canada to reach its goal of conserving 25% of our lands and oceans by 2025, and to work towards conserving 30% of each by 2030. Taken together with funding provided for the Nature Legacy Initiative announced in 2018, this represents the largest investment in nature conservation in Canada’s history.

Additionally, between 2020 and 2022, the department of Environment invested over $5 billion to establish the Natural Climate Solutions Fund. This Fund is being used to plant two billion trees across Canada, and to restore and improve the management of forests, grasslands, wetlands and agricultural lands. These actions will help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase carbon sequestration, while providing a host of biodiversity, climate change adaptation and human well-being co-benefits.

Canada is one of many countries demonstrating strong economic performance while decreasing the GHG intensity of their economies. For instance, while GHG emissions have held relatively constant since 2005 in Canada, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown substantially indicating progress on decoupling growth from emissions. In fact, the emissions intensity for the entire economy has declined by 39% since 1990 and by 26% since 2005.

While GDP remains an important metric, there is growing recognition of the shortcomings of GDP and other traditional economic indicators as stand-alone measures of the overall well-being of societies. That is why the government is working on a Quality of Life Framework that would put a more holistic and comprehensive evidence base at the centre of government decision-making, both now and over the longer term. (Measuring What Matters: Toward a Quality of Life Strategy for Canada - www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/measuring-what-matters-toward-quality-life-strategy-canada.html#Toc61968272)