2022 Reports 1 to 5 of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the Parliament of Canada—Greening of government falling short of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050

2022 Reports 1 to 5 of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the Parliament of CanadaGreening of government falling short of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050

Ottawa, 26 April 2022—A report released today by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Jerry V. DeMarco concludes that, at the 5 year mark, the federal government’s efforts to green government operations fall short in several areas, including planning, reporting and risk management.

“We found that the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat had taken initial steps to support departments’ efforts to reduce the federal government’s environmental footprint,” said Mr. DeMarco. “This is important given Canada’s publicly stated commitment to reach net‑zero emissions by 2050 and to be a national and global leader in transitioning to carbon-neutral government operations.”

The audit found that 8 of 27 departments had created reduction plans covering 81% of departmental emissions. However, some important information on greening government was hard to find, unclear or incomplete. In general, there was a lack of detail on costs and savings. For example, in the case of National Defence—the largest emitter in government—there was no clear information to show how the department was contributing to the overall reduction target. This lack of information makes it difficult for decision-makers, Parliament, and Canadians to know whether the government will meet its 2050 target and whether Canada is actually being the global leader in greening government that it has set out to be.

“More work is needed to ensure that the Greening Government Strategy delivers the desired results and that complete plans and methods are put in place to track and report on emission reductions,” said Mr. DeMarco.

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The 2022 Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Report 2—Greening Government Strategy is available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada website.

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