M-118 Greenhouse gas emissions

That:

(a) the House recognize that,

(i) over the past two years, scientists, Canadian members of Parliament and Senators, environment, health, and Indigenous groups, and Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development have all raised concern that the federal government has not been transparently reporting on greenhouse gas emissions in the forestry sector, and has artificially counted removals from forests in Canada's emissions targets,

(ii) accurately characterized reporting on forest-related greenhouse gas emissions would support the development of effective policy measures to reduce emissions,

(iii) a peer-reviewed study found that on average the forestry sector increased Canada’s emissions by over 90 million tonnes a year between 2005 and 2021, while the federal government, over the same time period, reported that the sector acted as a carbon sink, decreasing Canada's reported emissions,

(iv) the lack of accurately characterized, transparent reporting threatens to undermine the credibility and success of Canada’s climate plan; and

(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should ensure that the upcoming review of Canada’s approach to accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from the forestry sector includes a review of how Canada estimates and reports the sector's emissions and removals, including,

(i) identification of actions to address gaps, biases, and inconsistencies in the way Canada estimates and reports on anthropogenic versus natural emissions and removals,

(ii) means of improving transparency for policymakers, as recommended by Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in his “Forests and Climate Change” report, including on the impact of industrial logging.