The Boreal forest facing the oil giants
Alberta's boreal forest is home to the world's largest oil sands operation, just beneath the surface. These petroleum products are a solidified mixture of oil, sand, clay and water. To extract them, the vegetation must first be razed to clear the exploitable surface, which is then dug up. This mining process destroys the depths of these pristine ecosystems. This 5,000-year-old forest plays a crucial role: it shelters considerable freshwater reserves and fragile ecosystems such as peat bogs, wetlands resulting from thousands of years of organic matter accumulation, which would be incapable of resuscitating after such a disturbance.
Finally, the transport of this black gold is also a source of controversy. Among the 840,000 km of pipelines that cross Canada to transport oil and natural gas, one in particular is a source of controversy: the Trans Mountain pipeline. Since 1953, it has been delivering up to 300,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to British Columbia. The announcement of a project to expand the Trans Mountain network in 2013 raised the ire of environmentalists and aboriginal peoples. First and foremost, they have bitter memories of past problems with the pipeline, including numerous leaks of hundreds of thousands of liters of oil, which over the years have profoundly disrupted the environment. This is not the first time a pipeline project has been the subject of debate. The U.S.-Canada Keystone XL oil pipeline had been the subject of controversy for several years, until U.S. President Joe Biden announced that it would be banned in 2021.
Environmental policy
Whether in the Conservative or Liberal camp, Canada's environmental policy is often accused of standing still. For example, while the country was a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it actually increased them by 25% between 1990 and 2005!
The Conservative party, which was in power from 2006 to 2015, has a very mixed record. In fact, its inaction was ironically rewarded in 2009, when the environmental NGO network Climate Action Network gave Canada the Fossil of the Day Award: a satirical prize awarded to the countries slowing down climate negotiations the most. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper even went so far as to make his country the first to leave the Kyoto Protocol, in 2011.
While hopes have been rekindled with the election of Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party, environmentalists seem disappointed. Despite numerous environmentalist promises (to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030, and to achieve zero emissions by 2050), the Prime Minister is a staunch supporter of the oil industry, to the point of nationalizing the Trans Moutain pipeline for C$4.5 billion to ensure that its expansion is completed. He defended himself by announcing that the profits would be used to protect the environment: an argument that angered environmentalists. During Trudeau's mandate, transgenic salmon farming will also have been authorized.
All is not doom and gloom, however. In 2022, Justin Trudeau announced a ban on single-use plastics, and released $9 billion in investment for the environment, which will be used for various measures, including renewable energy and electric cars. Indeed, Canada is betting on electric vehicles, to the point of announcing that by 2035, it will require all cars sold to be emission-free. In addition, investment will be made in zero-emission buildings, and solar and wind power projects.
Energy in Canada
Thanks to its wealth of landscapes and resources, Canada has many sources of energy, to the point of being the sixth largest energy producer in the world, but fourth when it comes to renewable sources. And what's both rare and appreciable: around 2/3 of its electricity consumption comes from renewable sources, thanks to an impressive hydroelectric fleet. This makes Canada the world's second largest producer of hydroelectricity. However, this source of energy depends on each province's river network, so the provinces are quite uneven in their production, with Quebec well out in front.
The greenest city in the world?
After his election as Mayor of Vancouver in 2008, Gregor Robertson made a promise: by 2020, his city would be the greenest in the world! Ten years later, at the end of his mandate, the city has only achieved 8 of its 18 objectives... and has not been ranked the greenest city in the world. However, the program is far from a failure, since even without having crossed the finish line, significant progress has been made. Newly constructed buildings now consume 50% less energy than existing ones. Cycle paths, meanwhile, have been significantly extended, rising from almost 1,800 km to almost 4,700 km by the end of the project. The result: by increasing the number of journeys made on foot, by bicycle or by public transport from 40% to 54%, the city has achieved its goal of half the number of journeys made without a car. As for the objective of reducing the average distance travelled by Vancouverites by 20% by car, this has been comfortably exceeded, with a reduction of 37%! Other results are less impressive, but nonetheless worthy of mention, such as the 9% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, against a target of 30%.
A rich and threatened biodiversity
Canada boasts an extremely rich biodiversity, with a wide range of biomes. Yet this biodiversity is under threat from a number of factors, starting with environmental destruction. With 1 million square kilometers of intact forest, i.e. neither fragmented nor degraded, razed between 2000 and 2013, Canada is even the country with the highest rate of deforestation of intact forest. However, this figure is largely due to the size of the world's second largest country. Indeed, on a national scale, Canada lost 7.8% of its intact forest in the same period, a figure below the global average.
Despite this, habitat destruction, coupled with the use of pesticides, the introduction of invasive exotic species, overfishing, hunting and pollution, is causing a hecatomb among wildlife. Since 2003, the number of endangered species in the country has risen from just over 200 to almost a thousand.
Dangerous heat
Like many countries around the world, Canada is experiencing increasingly long and intense heat waves. In 2021, a historic heat wave swept across the country, and particularly through Western Canada, with a new national temperature record: 49.6°C recorded in Lytton, British Columbia. The scorching temperatures triggered several hundred fires, particularly in this province.
While studies immediately proved the heatwave's link to global warming, it was far from the only consequence. In fact, Canada, because of its northern location, is particularly hard hit, warming twice as fast as elsewhere. Glaciers, of which there are many in the north of the country, are melting at an impressive rate. According to a 2022 study by the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), they are even melting seven times faster than they were twenty years ago. This raises fears for the permafrost in the Mackenzie Valley, which has been warming by 0.2°C per year since 1980.
National parks
With 37 national parks and 11 national park reserves managed by Parks Canada, the country has a long tradition of protected areas: the first dates back to 1885! This is Banff National Park, located in the Rocky Mountains. Remarkable for its relief punctuated by mountain lakes, it is of great ecological importance, home to several glaciers, coniferous forests and fascinating animals such as the elk(Cervus canadensis) and the hoary marmot(Marmota caligata).
Banff may be the most visited park in the country, but it's not the biggest. That record is held by Wood Buffalo National Park and its 45,000 km2 surface area: larger than Switzerland! As its name suggests, it was created in 1922 to protect the American bison, of which it is now home to the largest wild herd. More than half of Canadian bison suffer from tuberculosis and bovine brucellosis, two diseases transmitted by cattle from Europe. Their population is therefore fragile, making it all the more essential to protect them. Finally, the park is also one of only two nesting sites for the endangered whooping crane(Grus americana), North America's largest bird.
Also worth mentioning is La Mauricie National Park in Quebec, which is mainly covered in forest. Of the 440 species of vascular plants that thrive here, 70 are rare. The forest is also home to endangered animal species, such as the little brown bat(Myotis lucifugus), which is in danger of extinction.
In addition to the national parks, there are four marine conservation areas of vital importance. Canada's marine flora and fauna are particularly vulnerable, and their protection is essential. The Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area, announced in 2019, is the first of its kind to be designated by ministerial order under the Oceans Act. It covers nearly 320,000 km2, making it by far the largest marine conservation area in the country. One of the aims of this protected area is to study the thick pack ice of the high Arctic and its response to global warming. Regulations strictly protect the park's wildlife, including polar bears(Ursus maritimus), walruses(Odobenus rosmarus) and bearded seals(Erignathus barbatus). The Inuit people, however, benefit from an exception and may, according to the signed agreement, "collect wildlife".
