The Climate Action Network Canada (CAN Canada) is composed of member organizations committed to preventing dangerous levels of human interference with the global climate system, protecting environmental sustainability and public health, while upholding principles of just transition, equity and social justice.
The network was set up in response to the conclusions of the world’s scientific community that human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels, are altering the atmosphere and changing our climate. Climate change is harmful to Canada’s and the world’s environment, threatens our economy, destabilizes communities and seriously degrades human health.
The network see that addressing climate change creates opportunities to strengthen our economy, create meaningful employment through the adoption of low-impact renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and build more sustainable communities. This challenge demands immediate, substantial, and sustained action by all orders of government and civil society to achieve long term goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that go far beyond the Kyoto target.
The mission of the Canadian Climate Change Network is to support and empower Canada’s governments, private sector, labour and civil society by designing, developing and implementing effective strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at international, national and local levels, and to prevent dangerous levels of human interference with the global climate system.
The mandate of CAN Canada is to promotes solutions and provides a basis for collaborative action and a forum for communication, policy development and coordination to its independent members recognizing that preventing dangerous human interference with the global climate system will involve significant changes in the way human society utilizes energy, natural resources and land.
Members support the mission, goal, mandate and activities of CAN Canada and endorses the CAN Canada Members’ Charter and the following Statement:
* Canadians have an ethical responsibility to take immediate steps to safeguard the environment and health of current and future generations.
Governments must steadily and resolutely shift towards sustainable energy policies based on energy conservation, energy efficiency and low-impact renewable energy sources.
We believe the new energy policy must provide for a just transition for workers and communities affected by this shift to a sustainable energy future.
At the international level, Canada, which has one of the highest per capita emission rates of greenhouse gases in the world, must play a leadership role in domestic and global action to enhance the integrity of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.
To achieve our international commitments, Canada must use only those international greenhouse gas allowances and credits that represent genuine emissions reductions.
We explicitly rule out large-scale environmentally damaging hydro dams and nuclear power – they are not part of a sustainable future.
Climate Action Network Canada – Réseau action climat Canada believes that to effectively begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions, slow climate change, and make the transition to a 21st Century economy based on the efficient use of primarily low-impact renewable energy, a series of conditions must be met check Domestic Policy Statement (December 2003).
The Climate Change Action Network website has a large number of interesting publications that relate to Ontario and the north eastern America, such as Renewable is Doable a Smarter Energy Plan for Ontario joint study by WWF-Canada and the Pembina Institute to identify electricity scenarios for Ontario that would meet future power demands without the use of nuclear power and coal, and that would generate lower greenhouse gas emissions than the plan currently proposed by the Ontario Power Authority.
There is also the Report #2: Analysis and Scenario Modelling of the Ontario Power System
The Case for Deep Reductions: Canada’s Role in Preventing Dangerous Climate Change – Executive Summary
Power for the Future: Towards a Sustainable Electricity System for Ontario (full report), May 2004 – Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, Canadian Environmental Law Association,
Power for the Future: Towards a Sustainable Electricity System for Ontario – Executive Summary, May 2004 – Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, Canadian Environmental Law Association
Climate Change and Canada’s Boreal Forests – Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society CPAWS. The thrust of this report is one of the best ways to increase the amount of carbon stored in a forest over the long term is to increase the average age of that forest over time. This is because older forests generally store more carbon than young forests, even though the younger trees are growing rapidly and are sequestering carbon. There are several ways to increase the average age of the forest. Protected areas and wilderness reserves, when established in intact forests, usually result in greater carbon storage than would be the case if
those same forests were logged and converted to intensively managed second growth forest.
The Climate Action Network also puts out regular news releases.
