It was surprising to see Lululemon being investigated for greenwashing by the Federal Competition Bureau. The sportswear superpower is accused of making unfounded claims about climate change. After announcing its “Be Planet” marketing campaign, which highlights the company’s sustainability initiatives, Lululemon doubled its greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why, Canadian National Observer headline: “What’s the difference between greenwashing and lying?”
That is a very good question. It’s a good thing Canada is not a corporation or the Competition Bureau would have to investigate a number of our national governments. The Canadian government has been making similar exaggerated promises about emissions reductions for decades. For example, under the Kyoto In the Protocol signed by Jean Chrétien we were supposed to reduce emissions by six percent by 2012 compared to 1990. Instead, increase them 24 percent by 2008.
Many countries reduced their emissions compared to the 1990 Kyoto benchmark. Take, for example, the entire EUwhich reduced beyond its target, reducing emissions by eight percent by 2012. But here in Canada, Stephen Harper, who once called the Kyoto Protocol a “socialist scheme to suck money from wealth-producing nations,” led us outside of the protocol in 2011. Canada was the only country to abandon it.
Harper then signed the Copenhagen Accord with a promise reduce emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from a 2005 baseline. In 2015, the Harper government even proposed a 30 percent reduction by 2030 from the 2005 baseline. But his government’s plans to meet the targets were assessed as non-existent. That assessment was accurate. We ended up increasing emissions by five percent from 2019.
Then came the Justin Trudeau years. In response to the global Paris agreement in late 2015, Canada committed to a 30 per cent reduction by 2030 from the 2005 benchmark. That target was the same one Harper had set and which many of us thought would be I had no intention of complying. But the Trudeau government was different, right?
Our Prime Minister even increased the target to a 40 percent reduction by 2030. Was this a real belief in Canada’s ability to make big changes or a cynical belief that we weren’t going to make it anyway, so why not make it big? To get an idea of the answer to that question, let’s take a look at the 2022 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions report the federal government just submitted to the United Nations.
Our national emissions in 2005 were 761 megatons (Mt). In 2022, we show a real reduction of 54 Mt, or seven percent, compared to 2005. So, things are finally happening, right? Well, something like that. That was a pandemic year. Remember that the Omicron wave was peaking at the beginning of the year and the convoy was set up in downtown Ottawa. Things did not return to normal until the end of the year.
So let’s examine the area that showed the most significant reduction relative to the 2005 baseline. This is power generation (-67 Mt). Our Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, highlighted this sector when announcing the national results. Mainly what drove this big change was getting Ontario and Alberta off coal. In terms of GHGs associated with power generation, Ontario’s contribution to reductions Until 2022 in relation to 2005 it was -25 and that of Alberta was -27. Awesome.
But that win was a one-time event; You can only leave the charcoal once. After Ontario completely abandoned coal in 2014, it was showing a total emissions reduction of 19 per cent due to all the changes. It looks like we were on a good roll, on track for Ontario to contribute to the national goal of a 30 per cent reduction by 2030.
It’s lucky #Canada is not a corporation or the Competition Bureau would have to investigate a number of our national #governments. The Canadian government has been making exaggerated promises about reducing #emissions for decades.
But in fact, that was pretty much the end of Ontario’s improvements. From 2015 to 2022, Ontario has achieved an additional reduction of just three per cent and even that appears to be a pandemic effect that won’t last. Since Ontario quit coal in 2014, nothing major has happened to further reduce emissions.
If we look at Alberta’s emissions, we see something even worse. In 2022, Alberta showed an overall increase relative to 2005 (19 Mt), even though it abandoned coal and was still feeling the pandemic-related economic slowdown. Alberta is the largest GHG emitter in the country and is still showing an increase relative to 2005. The only good news is that it could have been worse.
The increases are coming under a government that says it really believes in climate action. But it’s hard to see how things will get much better between now and 2030. You have to feel what Guilbeault is doing, standing there trying to pretend these numbers are good news. But it comes from a long line of environment ministers who have had to do that.
Canada often talks highly of climate change action, but never puts the puck in the net, often scoring at the other end. Would we call it greenwashing or lying? Is there really any difference?