Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan

Media release from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario:

December 10, 2008 – The Ontario Minister of the Environment, on behalf of the Ontario government, has released Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan Annual Report 2007-2008: Creating our Sustainable Future (“the Report”).

The intent of the Report has been to document steps taken so far to deliver on the Government of Ontario’s Go Green Action Plan On Climate Change, announced in August 2007. The Action Plan notes that it has set “real, achievable goals – reductions in greenhouse gases that will contribute to addressing the defining issue of our generation, and establish a green, competitive economy.”

In conjunction with the launch of the Action Plan, the Premier’s office announced that tough measures “will be put in place to ensure transparency and accountability. This will include a report back to Ontarians every year in the legislature and an independent review by the Environmental Commissioner on the government’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” This is a new role for the ECO.

The purpose of this ECO review (“the Review”) is to answer three key questions:

1. Are we are on track to achieve the 2014 greenhouse gas (GHG) target of 166 million tonnes (Mt) identified in the Report?
2. How effective is the suite of initiatives identified in the Report in achieving a GHG reduction of 61 million tonnes per year (Mt/yr) at 2014?
3. What will the ECO expect to see in next year’s Report to improve planning transparency?

Click here to download the full report (.pdf)