Experts anticipate fast climate action in Canada as COP26 summit winds down

With the UN-sponsored COP26 climate conference coming to an end, the federal government has to put some specifics behind promises.

The delegates are trickling home and Glasgow’s streets are clearing of protesters.

Now, experts say, the real work begins of putting meat and bone to the pledges and commitments made by world leaders to keep global warming below catastrophic levels.

“The next couple years are going to be the most important, fastest-moving period of carbon reduction in Canadian history,” said Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices.

With the UN-sponsored COP26 climate conference coming to an end, the federal government has to put some specifics behind promises. Business leaders are looking for details on everything from when the commitment to cap fossil fuel emissions will kick in to regulations on methane releases to tax credits for carbon storage.

“At the end of the day, it comes back to how you translate those targets into policy in Canada,” said John Dillon of the Business Council of Canada.

Dillon said he expects the climate discussion to broaden after Glasgow to include sectors such as construction, agriculture — even the military.

“The military produces a lot of GHG emissions.”

How quickly those promises are implemented and how deeply they’ll bite will be heated debating points.