Foundation of Environmental Management
Name
University
Date
Climate change problem
Currently, climate change is imposing a new challenge in everyday life, thus raising concern for action. The ecological, economic, and human costs of climate action mitigation are increasing every day. The climate change effects such as disastrous hurricanes, flooding, fires, droughts seize to be a future concern; however, a present or today issues that should be addressed worldwide. Global emissions of greenhouse gases tend to reach record levels without any climaxing signs. For instance, according to research on climate change, the last four years recorded the hottest periods as well as winter temperatures in cold areas rising by 3 degrees Celsius. As a result, sea levels start to increase; coral reefs start to dye. Such issues related to climate change threatens life on the ecosystem, including health, along with food security risks.
Consequently, climate change impacts disrupt the international or even national economic development since much of the revenues might be invested in health care schemes instead of income investments. The reduction of global greenhouse emission can lead to the overall fall of global temperatures up to 2 degrees Celsius for the next 11 years. Thus, efforts to avoid polluting the environment help the countries to attain climate action as one of UN sustainable development goals (Kellogg,2019).
Economic, environmental and political reasons why the Government of Canada should take action to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
The air, soil, and water pollutants impose hazardous effects on the ecological system as well as slowing the economic growth of the country. The polluted environments lead to climate change, which in turn results in rising temperatures, disastrous floods, rising sea levels, among others. Therefore, the government of Canada should take action on climate change mitigation along with adaption to reduce the costs of human well-being and mitigate the destruction ecosystem cycle. For instance, when the government shifts to the usage of technological advances of clean energy tend to have economic benefits. Economic profits of clean energy results from the reduced cost of running the companies. Carbon pricing as a tool regulated by the government to reduce the greenhouse gases from either public or private sectors become outweighed. By integrating clean technologies, the cost of carbon pricing can be used for other developmental activities or installation of more clean technologies, thus imposing economic growth of the companies as well as the economy of the country (Yusa,2015).
Ecological structures encompass hydrosphere, lithospheric, atmospheric, and biosphere processes. Uncertainties increase in carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases tends to affect such ecological processes through climate change and stagnant growth of plants. As a result, the various ecosystems in Canada get affected. Regarding climate change case for Canada, researchers pinpoint that the country is experiencing shorter, wetter wintertime, and extended growing season (Lee,2015). Variations to the hydrological cycle including advanced and prior spring flood peaks, extended ice-free durations, warmer water temperatures in time of ice-free seasons, among others. Such scenarios extend diverse impacts on various and specific regions of the ecosystem, including terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and arctic ecosystems.
For instance, in the case of ecosystems such as marine, increased carbon dioxide levels in the seas and oceans changes the chemistry of the surface water resulting in a more acidic environment. Therefore, life in the marine becomes distressed. Marine species consisting of mollusks, plankton, cold-water corals, and pteropods grows a calcium carbonate shell or even calcified skeletal structures for the adaptation on the acidified waters. After a while, some of the marine species, such as cold-water stony coral, will be no more able to sustain calcified skeletal structures. Subsequently, the coral will be unable to offer ecosystem services, including the protection of coasts from storm surge, soil erosion, and regulation of water quality.
Moreover, marine ecosystems change along with its distribution of species, which shall affect fisheries. Affected fisheries influence the whole food chain flow and food sources for some of Canada’s communities negatively, particularly along the coastal regions. They are consequently affecting the well-being of the people, including economic growth and good health.
In the case of political factors, Canada is a confederation of ten provinces, along with two territories. The provincial, territorial, and federal governments share governmental authorities and jurisdictions. The shared obligations to govern the country are vital evident when dealing with environmental policies. The constitution of Canada wrote before environmental concerns can lead to prominent political issues regarding environmental management. The reason is the law does not handle which level of the three governments have the mandate or jurisdiction of tackling environment management. Therefore, each government workout the authority over the environmental issues according to the assigned responsibilities in Canada’s constitution.
The division of power within Canada’s governments enables every government to have jurisdiction over various policies correlated to carbon emission. Developing environmental systems and effective response within the governments prepares the political leaders along with ecological consultants on any current or future effects of climate change. The experts shall have an understanding of the current climate trends and how can consequently influence the economic, social life of the human and at large the country. In a nutshell, every government, by having delegated jurisdiction on carbon emission, will be in a position to monitor environmental effects, socio-economic impacts and inform Canadians about the arising natures of influences to avoid any hazardous effects regarding life (Baird,2016).
The impact of actions taken to date by the previous government
Carbon pricing strategies are one of the steps which have been laid by the previous government to deal with climate change issues. The carbon pricing plans execute costs on fossil fuel combustion by customers and industries. The carbon pricing is either done directly or even indirectly through carbon tax or even cap and trade systems accordingly. In the 2008 federal government under prime minister Stephen Harper, the campaign about carbon pricing gained momentum. Harper introduced a cap and trade system as one of the plans to reduce emissions, particularly from the industries. Similarly, In November 2015, the liberal government under prime minister Justin Trudeau continued to implement the strategy of carbon pricing.
The prime minister attended the Paris climate change summit, which agreed on the ways of limiting the global temperatures to about 2 degrees Celsius. The federal government made its commitment to reducing greenhouse gases by promising to reduce the gases by thirty percent by 2030 — the actions of carbon pricing, including a carbon tax, cap, and trade system. In carbon tax plans, the federal government tends to charge money to industries that engage in burning or distributing fossil fuels, which include oil, coal, and natural gases. On the other hand, the cap and trade strategy, the government imposes a perimeter on emissions of carbon within its jurisdiction. In such a case, the government provides companies with permits regulating the industries to emit a certain amount of allowed carbon.
Specific priority action that the federal government could take to reduce GHG emissions
Phase Out Fossil-fueled Electricity
At present, in Canada, about twenty percent of the electricity used countrywide comes from burned fossil fuels, particularly coal resources. Coal power stations produce significant carbon resulting in air pollution. The air pollution becomes one principal source of acid rain, thus releasing mercury to the surrounding. Though coal is extracted easily to recap for its drawbacks, it tends to be expensive in contrast to extraction. Therefore, the cost of cleaning the polluted environment and the well-being of humanity is very high. Most of the remote communities in Canada depend on power-driven diesel generators for electricity. Diesel, when it is burned, releases hazardous, different kinds of chemicals in the air, which are ling-damaging. To reduce dependence on coal and diesel sources of energy results in health improvement saves the cost of health care, and aid in mitigating climate change (Briner,2016).
Therefore, to reduce carbon emission to attain the 2005 levels by 2030 carbon emission target, it is recommended according to the federal government policies and regulation that: the diesel as a significant power source in the country can be stored in high tanks and used only in the dark, long, and cold wintertime. Through ratification of the United Nationals Framework Conventional for Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreements by federal governments, renewable sources endorsement tends to fight climate change. Renewable energy alternatives such as solar and wind energy generate electricity with considerable zero pollution on the environment. The government should reconsider the utilization of renewable sources technologies to generate electricity, thus disconnecting more people from using diesel generators or even coal power plants.
Potential objections and opposition of renewable energy source and diesel storage
The main challenge with the renewable energy source such as solar and wind is only that tend to be intermittent. In other words, the availability of the power depends on the then the shining sun or the blowing wind. In such a case, the vast number of people in the country try to avoid usage of the renewable alternative due to its occasional inconveniences. Thus, they continue to utilize fossil fuels as the primary and consistent source of power. Generally, to overcome such challenges, improvement in the storage of renewable energy draws attention to the grid connectors. It, therefore, can be integrated to ensure the availability of power hence meeting energy demand cycles. One of the technological improvements of renewable sources is by increasing the density and the charging rate for energy storage batteries after been charged (Jennings,2016). The advanced technology will attract a significant number of people be connected to the grid or even install less cheap solar panels instead of using diesel generators.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the combined actions for the reduction of carbon emission, including the carbon tax, use of the diesel storage tanks, renewable energies, carbon offset, cap, and trade system, tend to put Canada closer to its target of reducing carbon emission to 30 percent by 2030. Nevertheless, the federal government still has some more work done. Does the main question that needs attention is how Canada strategies in balancing the necessity for reducing carbon emission along with desired economic growth? Therefore, business plays a vital role in getting solutions for climate change and having economic development. Enhanced climate change solutions can reinforce Canada’s economies and the creation of jobs. While transforming the country having cleaner air, preserved natural habitats and biodiversity, and generally, protection of the ecosystem.
New technological advancement and engineering solutions such as renewable energy can be delivered at a lower cost than fossil -fuels. The government can invest in renewable energy to generate bulk power, thus improving the economy. The transformation needs an interpretive sign. In other words, it a means to end supports for fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy. The closure of coal power plants accelerates the transformation of attaining quality air, good health, and wealth of citizens. In a nutshell, the shifting to clean energy cuts the cost of climate change mitigation as well as it is profitable to the economic growth of the country.
References
Baird, J., Plummer, R., & Bodin, Ö. (2016). Collaborative governance for climate change
adaptation in Canada: experimenting with adaptive co-management. Regional
Environmental Change, 16(3), 747-758.
Briner, J. P., McKay, N. P., Axford, Y., Bennike, O., Bradley, R. S., de Vernal, A., … &
Jennings, A. (2016). Holocene climate change in Arctic Canada and
Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews, 147, 340-364.
Kellogg, W. W. (2019). Climate change and society: consequences of increasing
atmospheric carbon dioxide. Routledge.
Lee, S. Y., Park, Y. S. & Klassen, R. D. (2015). Market responses to firms’ voluntary
climate change information disclosure and carbon communication. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(1), 1-12.
Yusa, A., Berry, P., J Cheng, J., Ogden, N., Bonsal, B., Stewart, R., & Waldick, R.
(2015). Climate change, drought, and human health in Canada. International
journal of environmental research and public health, 12(7), 8359-8412.