WCS Canada Comments on Yukon's Clean Energy Act January2022
WCS Canada scientists have been working in Yukon since 2004 on land use and protected areas planning, land and water management, wildlife conservation research, and policy applications for conservation science. The Government of Yukon is committed to reducing the Yukon’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the exception of mining emissions, by 45 per cent by 2030, reaching net-zero emissions across the Yukon’s entire economy by 2050. These are our comments on the proposed Clean Energy Act in Yukon.
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WCS Canada Comments on Discussion Paper - Preparing for Climate Change: Canada's National Adaptation Strategy
Thank you for the opportunity to submit our remarks on the Discussion Paper, ‘Preparing for Climate Change: Canada’s National Adaption Strategy’. We do so in our collective capacity as conservation scientists on behalf of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. Here we offer high-level comments in support of the strong role that can and should be played by the federal government for Canada to adapt to climate change. Our comments focus on the role of the
“Thriving Natural Environment” as one of five “systems” across which Canada intends to “advance climate preparedness”. In general, while we were pleased to see a larger role acknowledged in this strategy for the Natural Environment than has been evident in previous versions, this “system” should not be considered or addressed in isolation.
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WCS Canada Comments - Environment and Climate Change Canada Natural Climate Solutions Program Design - January 2021
We were invited to participate in a discussion on the potential approaches to implementing Natural Climate Solutions. Here, we provide recommendations, including but not limited to, the conservation of high-carbon ecosystems including peatlands.
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WCS Canada Comments - Federal discussion paper on carbon pollution pricing - September 2020
We provide recommendations in response to Environment and Climate Change Canada's discussion paper - Carbon Pollution Pricing: Considerations for Protocol
Development in the Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System. We recommend that the
Government of Canada explore policy, legislative and/or financial measures that could complement the offset system and broaden the range of tools available to Natural Climate Solutions that could be applied to incentivize long-term carbon management.
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WCS Canada Comments - Yukon's Our Clean Future Strategy - January 2020
Yukon Government's draft strategy ("Our Clean Future") deals with climate change, and energy supplies, while promoting a green economy. We provide support and encouragement for various useful policy intentions such as expanding the suite of geothermal, solar, and wind sources of energy. However, we are concerned that the strategy promotes biomass energy (burning wood) as a low-carbon energy sources, in the same category as wind and solar in terms of its value in replacing fossil fuels. More extensive and intensive burning of wood for space heating will not significantly reduce the Yukon's carbon footprint, but will lock the territory into many decades of high-carbon emissions from this sector. In addition, we are critical of the government's intention not to include emissions from mines in the accounting of the carbon footprint, and to allow mines to work towards lower carbon emissions using intensity measures (carbon emitted per unit mineral production) rather than absolute measures (total carbon emitted from all sources per year). The strategy does not recognize the huge value of intact forests and landscapes for their carbon sequestration and storage properties.
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