Canada's Climate Change Challenge

The goal of this session is to get you to think about key aspects of Canada's (and the world's) climate change challenge through 14 graphs and tables. By the end of this session, you should have a sense of:

• the basic problem of climate change;
• the scale of the climate mitigation challenge;
• the basics of emissions-reduction pathways;
• Canada's emissions inventory;
• Canada's emissions projections;

Let's get started.

We'll all live in a warming world

Source: IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report

Climate models have done a good job so far

Source: IPCC AR6, WG1, Chapter 1, Figure 1.9 (p. 185) via Zeke Hausfather

Not just about the heat

Source: IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report

As we learn more, we get more worried

Source: IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report

We're not on track

Source: IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report

The required energy system transition is dramatic

Acting on climate change means burning fewer fossil fuels

The world isn't going to use as much oil as you think

Source: IEA World Energy Outlook, 2024

The real action is in natural gas

Source: IEA World Energy Outlook, 2024

Canada is a material part of the problem

Source: Our World in Data

Canada is a material part of the problem (embeded map)

Canada is not meeting its targets

Canadian Climate Policy is Challenging

This Challenge is Close to Home

Policy in Two Sectors Will Decide Canada's Future Emissions

The IPCC Synthesis Report, Summary for Economics Students