SDG 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Actions for SDG 13
Implement initiatives aimed at measuring and reducing your carbon footprint ⬇
- Measure the carbon footprint of your company's activity
- Enable customers to measure their carbon footprint of the service enjoyed
- Offset part or all of the calculated carbon footprint, each year
- Share the means of carbon footprint compensation on your website
- Buy carbon footprint offset credits from entities who are endorsed to do so
- Source all electricity the company consumes from renewable sources – such as wind, solar or hydro – or install renewable energy generation capacity on-site
- Retrofit lighting systems of the company’s facilities to energy efficient LED lighting
Support and promote sustainable mobility at all levels and for all audiences ⬇
- Coordinate and encourage employees to use public transport or company buses
- Use electric and/or less polluting vehicles
- Facilitate access to public transport
- Inform employees about walking routes to get to work
- Encourage remote work as much as possible
Implement programs to increase the company's resilience to climate change ⬇
- Have sustainable drainage systems to adapt to the risk of flooding
- Install stormwater collection tanks to adapt to the risk of drought
- Inform ourselves about the risk maps for natural desasters of the territory
- Reduce the effects of the territory's "heat islands" by incorporating vegetation into your organization
- Provide instructions to prevent wildfires for your employees and customer
- Increase investment in innovation to improve the efficiency of the company’s product portfolio, thereby enabling customers to reduce their GHG emissions
- Invest in CCS (carbon capture & storage) technology to capture emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere
- Reduce GHG emission from transport operations with abatement levers such as reducing the carbon footprint through greater fuel efficiency, local sourcing, modal shift to lower carbon modalities (e.g. air to sea freight), modular transport, improving container utilization, warehouse optimization, etc
- Understand climate risk and build resilience into the company’s assets and supply chain
- Expand sustainable forest management through responsible sourcing practices and product substitution
SDG 7 in Canada
Canada's long-term strategy to climate change ⬇
- In addition to being among the first countries to sign and ratify the Paris Agreement, Canada is following through on its Paris commitments by implementing a national plan to reduce its GHG emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030 and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
A landmark achievement, the PanCanadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change is the first climate change plan in Canada’s history to include collective and individual commitments by federal, provincial and territorial governments, and to have been developed through engagement with national representatives of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, the general public, NGOs and businesses.
In 2017, Canada also published its Strategy on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, including black carbon and methane, as part of a holistic approach for meeting climate and air quality objectives. This strategy complements the Pan-Canadian Framework.
Furthermore, Canada’s Federal Sustainable Development Strategy outlines 13 ambitious environmental goals, including effective action on climate change, and sets out the Government of Canada’s environmental sustainable development priorities, targets and concrete actions to achieve them. Canada’s most recent GHG emissions projections (December 2017) demonstrate progress toward our 2030 emissions reduction target.
Taking into account policies and measures, both implemented and announced, Canada’s emissions in 2030 are expected to be 583 MT, i.e. 232 MT below the previous projection. This decline is equivalent to approximately one third of Canada’s 2015 emissions. The decline is widespread across all economic sectors, reflecting the breadth and depth of the Pan-Canadian Framework.
In November 2016, Canada became one of the first six countries to submit its Mid-Century Long-term LowGHG Development Strategy (MCS), thereby articulating its long-term, deep de-carbonization considerations under the Paris Agreement. Canada’s MCS outlines various pathways to illustrate how Canada could transition to a lower-carbon economy by 2050, i.e. to achieve an 80% reduction in GHG emissions from 2005 levels, consistent with the Paris Agreement.
Canada has also been taking proactive action to better understand and manage the impacts associated with the changing climate, including in Canada’s North. In 2016 and 2017, the Government made investments to support the implementation of the adaptation and climate resilience pillar of the Pan-Canadian Framework.
Canada remains committed to supporting the poorest and mostvulnerable populations affected by climate change ⬇
Canada is delivering on its pledge of $2.65 billion in climate finance by 2020-2021 to help developing countries transition to a lower-carbon, climate-resilient economy.
As part of its $2.65 billion climate finance commitment, Canada will provide $1.8 billion to help mobilize private-sector funding for climate action and build on Canada’s strong experience with blended climate finance.
Canadian climate finance is being delivered through a range of bilateral and multilateral partners. To date, Canada has announced:
- $300 million to the Green Climate Fund, the primary global fund aimed at addressing climate challenges in developing countries;
- $30 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund, administered by the Global Environment Facility, which addresses urgent adaptation needs among the poorest and mostvulnerable countries;
- $50 million to the G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance to increase climate resilience in developing countries, including $40 million to the Africa Risk Capacity for climate risk insurance;
- $200 million to establish a second phase of the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia, administered by the Asian Development Bank;
- $150 to the G7 African Renewable Energy Initiative to address both climate change mitigation and access to energy by leveraging private sector investment;
- $17.2 million to Cowater International to support sustainable energy and economic growth in the particularly vulnerable region of Boucle du Mouhoun, Burkina Faso
Latest Updates/Resources related to SDG 13
Sources
Government of Canada, Canada’s Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - Voluntary National Review, 2018
SDG Compass, Learn More About the SDGs, 2015