Canada And The Paris Agreement On Climate Change

On Saturday December 12, 2016, Canada and 194 other nations adopted the Paris Agreement, a global pact to fight climate change. The Paris Agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise this century to "well below" 2ºC and hopes to limit it to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels.

Earlier this year, Canada, under the previous Conservative government, committed to reduce GHG emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. Prime Minister Trudeau previously announced that the federal government would hold meetings with the provinces and territories within the next three months to set a new national emission reduction target and to establish a pan-Canadian framework for combatting climate change. The government has not provided any details yet on new targets, but Catherine McKenna, federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change has referred to the current targets as a "floor not a ceiling."