Air Quality and Climate Change

Report: Air Quality and Climate Change: Moving Forward (September 2001) [PDF] [HTML Format]

Climate change has been described as the most important environmental issue of our lifetime. Accordingly, in 1997 world leaders met in Kyoto, Japan where they adopted the Kyoto Protocol - the international agreement to address climate change. The Protocol calls for developed countries that are signatories of the agreement to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent from 1990 levels.

Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, making a commitment to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent between 2008 to 2012, below 1990 levels. Ontario continues to emphasize that the federal government and all other provinces and territories must work together on an effective climate change strategy for Canada. In the meantime, Ontario continues to introduce programs that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the province right now.

Climate change can be a complicated subject. Much has been written on the subject recently that may be confusing to the average person. This report seeks to demystify the science of climate change and explain the potential effects of greenhouse gases and what is being done to address the risks of global warming. The report also outlines some of the things individuals can do to reduce greenhouse gases and what Ontario is doing to address climate change.

To view/print PDF documents, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe Acrobat Reader is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe web site. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader.