(Download) "Barriers to Canadian Municipal Response to Climate Change (Air Pollution Control Efforts)" by Canadian Journal of Urban Research * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Barriers to Canadian Municipal Response to Climate Change (Air Pollution Control Efforts)
- Author : Canadian Journal of Urban Research
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 219 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION In October 1988, leaders and policy experts from 46 countries participated in the Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere where the first voluntary targets of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were made. The "Toronto Target" was to cut emissions by 20% of 1988 levels by 2005, but for the most part national targets were not met. Since that meeting, and starting in earnest in the late 1990s, Canada has published several reports and action plans in its ongoing effort to take action on climate change, (1) most recently "Moving Forward on Climate Change." Domestically, it is now well recognized that the federal government's activities have produced vociferous intergovernmental debate that was intensified following ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002. Despite the lingering conflict over the potential costs and mechanisms to respond to this global concern, particularly in relation to provincial and federal roles, a small, purposeful, and often overlooked response to climate change has been taking place in Canada since as early as 1988. This response and early action were initiated by a handful of municipalities who embraced the challenge of climate change and developed and implemented their own municipal response. Despite this initial progress and continually growing action at the municipal level, there still remains widespread uncertainty about what precise role Canadian municipalities can take in responding to this issue, and more importantly, about what barriers municipalities face in trying to respond. This was certainly the case in the late 1990s when this research was initiated, and still today there remains little written about the specific barriers Canadian municipalities did, do, and will face in making a purposeful contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases. This is despite the recognition that municipalities have an active and important role to play as articulated in the latest federal government climate change plan, and in light of recent research clearly stating that "local action is essential" to address climate change (Parker et al. 2003, 181).