Canada is being short-changed by climate bookkeepers – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – December 2, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

The whole country is a gigantic carbon sink with an abundance of natural features that decarbonize the world

Canada’s new minister of the environment, Steven Guilbeault, has an opportunity to do something meaningful about climate, but he must scrap the irrational and inaccurate assumptions swallowed whole by his predecessor.

The first major reform needed is to toss out the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, introduced in Parliament on Nov. 19, 2020, which formalizes Canada’s commitment to the UN to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

When calculating emissions however, the United Nations doesn’t deduct decarbonization “assets” — such as Canada’s plentiful trees. In other words, climate bookkeeping is unfactual, yet Ottawa has never questioned or fought this despite the fact that Canada is a gigantic carbon sink with an abundance of natural features that decarbonize the world.

There are 318 billion trees in Canada that mostly soak up carbon dioxide — the second-largest forested area in the world (after Russia), spread across 3.5 million square kilometres. Trees cover 38 per cent of Canada’s land mass.

For the rest of this column: https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-canada-is-being-short-changed-by-climate-bookkeepers