Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development has issued a report that includes bad news for the civil servants and politicians who run Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada because they have “yet to develop a strategy for how it would contribute to Canada’s 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas mitigation and sequestration goals.”
“Without a strategy to provide the sector with a long-term vision and direction, the department’s path to help achieve Canada’s 2030 and 2050 goals remains unclear.”
AAFC has the On-Farm Climate Action Fund, but the commissioner’s report said“the department’s delays in funding approvals resulted in recipients missing a growing season, which limited the greenhouse gas reduction results achieved by January 2024. In addition, two of the three programs had not yet set or finalized all of their performance targets for climate change mitigation. ... Setting targets and tracking results [is] important.”
Greenhouse gas emissions from farming increased by 39 per cent between 1990 and 2021, the report said.
Darrin Qualman, director of climate crisis policy for the National Farmers Union, defended farmers, noting that subsidy programs are over-subscribed and commodity groups are developing their own ambitious emission-reduction programs.
“Farmers want to do more,” said Qualman, “but they need more support and direction from government.”
He also came to the defence of civil servants at AAFC, saying they are consulting farmers and are working on a sustainable agriculture strategy announcement and have convened the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy Committee where “we consistently see AAFC representatives eager to find ways to increase sustainability and decrease emissions,” Qualman said.
But emissions continue to increase.
