Policies on greenhouse gas emissions by Canadian industries - Essay Example

s the assignment was due Policies on Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Canadian Industries Our beautiful earth since its origination has been a ‘hotbed’ of activity. Activity in the sense, we humans has been involved in various activities, utilizing our physical as well as mental part. The activities only caused tremendous transformations, transforming our globe from a primitive one to a developed one. But, one can see that these activities not only resulted in development, but also have resulted in destructions to our earth. That is, in his/her quest to achieve advancement humans have invented or inventing many tools. The same tools have turned out to be life damaging tools, transforming into a threatening problems, damaging human lives and importantly the earth’s environment, which sustain that human lives. So, this paper will discuss the serious environmental problem of Climate change caused by Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Canadian Government response to it, particularly the industry it targets, the intent, the desired and meaningful impact of these government policies Our Globe due to its position in the solar system is the recipient of comfortable warmth from the sun. This has been the feature of earth from its origination, but this favorable aspect had begun to show changes. That is, from the comfortable heat our ancestors faced, the global environment including Canada’s is being exposed to a lot more hotness causing dangerous repercussions. So, this increase in the average temperature on the Earths near-surface air in recent years or decades have been the basis for climate change. Canada located in the Northern Sphere near to the Arctic have been fully exposed to the effects of this climate change, facing many negative effects “IPCC suggests that over the next 50 years it is likely that nearly all land areas will warm more rapidly than the global average… Most notable… is the warming in the northern regions of North America” (Berliner, 2003). The industry, which is one of the catalysts for the climate change and the problems associated with it, is the steel industry. With steel being an important tool for development, it cannot be removed from the people’s way of life. But, the problem is not with this steel, but with the industries which manufacture the steel because they only emit the dangerous green house gases, affecting the people world over including the Canadians. The Government response to this problem came out in the form of common legislation, section 166 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which controls the problem of global warming and climate change. The purpose of this act is that, Canada should abide by all the international agreements that are signed by it, and prevent Carbon dioxide emission, pollution, etc that are emitted by industries particularly the steel industry. And the main International agreement Canada signed and ratified is the Kyoto protocol, but it did not yield desired results. This protocol legally binds Canada to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels during the period 2008 to 2012: a target of 563 Megatonnes of greenhouse gases (Green Car Congress.com, 2007). After the above discussed common legislations covering all, including the Steel industry, specific initiatives concentrating on the steel industry was undertaken. That is, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the Canadian Steel Producers Association today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to address climate change. The main achievement of this MOU is that, the steel industry has confirmed its intent to help Canada meet its climate change commitments. For that, the Government of Canada along with the industry will design and develop low-emissions technologies by committing $300,000 to an international research effort (nrcan). This initiative showed some positive results in the initial stages, but did not improve further, with emissions only increasing. Also, the Canadian Government set its industries including Steel to follow the guidelines to decrease the emission of Carbon dioxide by adopting the ‘Turning the Corner’ climate change strategy. But, this government strategy has many loopholes. This being the case, the new Canadian government under different leadership and party has responded by formulating a different set of legislation by discarding the earlier strategies based on Kyoto Protocol. So, in October 2006, the government formulated the new Canada Clean Air Act (“CCAA”) with further amendments to the Canada Environmental Protection Act, Energy Efficiency Act, and the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act all of which were introduced under the bill titled “Bill 0” or “Bill 30”. But, the problem with this initiative is that even though Canadian Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty committed to give two billion Canadian dollars in his budget for this “Made in Canada project”, he did give any details about the financial allocations, setting of angry reactions from environmentalists. Also, the “Bill 0” along with the Canada’s New 2007 plan reconfirmed its disregard for Kyoto limits on Carbon dioxide emissions and set its own limits, which should be followed by its industries. So, these strategies seems to be not working causing emission of greenhouse gases like the Carbon dioxide, thus leading to further climate changes. So, this intent of Canada and the Ontario government to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and the resultant climate change did not provide favorable results. That is, Canada did not fully put in the efforts to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted by the industries including the steel industries, even instigating an environmental organization called “Friends of the Earth Canada” to sue the government for not fully upholding its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The organization took this step because there is no reduction in the emission of Carbon dioxide, the fact that was confirmed by UN also. “UN Report Proves Canada Must Act Now On Climate Change," claimed many newspaper headlines. Actually, Canada’s Carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 35% from the levels that existed in the 1990’s. So, even though the intent of the Canadian and the Ontarian Government were good and positive, the impact that happened was not that desirable. That is, the results of the government policy or weak government policy did not show good results; instead it showed negative results with the emissions from the steel industries actually increasing in the atmosphere. So, these policies did not had a meaningful impact on Canada’s carbon footprint. Global warming and the resultant climate change should be controlled or even minimized at most, so that the world of tomorrow will be a better and safer place to live for us, and for our children. “Unless we act now, our children will inherit a hotter world, dirtier air and water, more severe floods and droughts, and more wildfires” (National Resources Defense Council, 2006) Works Cited Berliner, Mark.L. Uncertainty and Climate Change. Statistical Science. Vol. 18, No. 4. pp.430-435. November 2003. Green Car Congress. Com. First Global Warming Lawsuit Filed Against Government of Canada. October 13, 2007. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/05/first_global_wa.html National Resources Defense Council. Consequences of Global Warming. October 13, 2007. http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fcons.asp nrcan. Climate Change: Government and Canadian Steel Industry Reach Agreement. October 13, 2007. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/media/newsreleases/2005/200502_e.htm Read More