Green Plan
The Green Plan, launched by Canada’s Department of the Environment in December 1990, is a comprehensive initiative aimed at ensuring a safe and healthy environment for both current and future generations while promoting economic soundness. This plan emerged after extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including government representatives, businesses, and the public. It addresses a broad spectrum of environmental issues and embeds the principles of sustainable development into decision-making processes at all societal levels.
As an umbrella policy, the Green Plan set forth several specific goals to guide Canada’s environmental efforts. These include ensuring clean air, water, and land; fostering sustainable use of renewable resources; protecting special spaces and species; preserving the integrity of Arctic ecosystems; and committing to global environmental security. Each of these goals encompasses various actions, such as reducing waste, managing forests sustainably, creating protected areas, and stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. The implementation of the Green Plan has led to increased environmental inspections, assessments of toxic substances, and strategies for rapid responses to environmental emergencies, all aimed at fostering a healthier environment for Canadians.
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Subject Terms
Green Plan
Identification: Canadian national strategy to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment along with a sound economy
Date: Initiated on December 11, 1990
By establishing a series of sustainable development goals and then measuring progress toward those goals and mobilizing collective, nationwide efforts, Canada’s Green Plan has provided a model for a national approach to environmental management.
After many years of extensive consultations with Canadians representing government, business, interest groups, and the public, Canada’s Department of the Environment launched its internationally acclaimed Green Plan in December, 1990. The overall goal of the plan was to ensure that current and future generations would enjoy a safe, healthy environment and a sound economy. Although the Green Plan focused on a wide range of environmental issues, it also incorporated the fundamentals of sustainable development into all aspects of decision making at all levels of society.
Since the Green Plan was an umbrella document, many of the details were left to work out during implementation. Many programs were initiated that affected various aspects of the lives of all Canadians, including the air they breathed, the water they drank, and the food they ate. For example, numerous full assessments of priority toxic substances were performed, and in 1992 the number of full-time Canadian environmental inspectors and investigators was increased from forty-nine to seventy.
The Green Plan established a series of sustainable development goals for Canadians that now serve as benchmarks for measuring progress and mobilizing collective, nationwide efforts. The first goal is to ensure that current citizens and future generations have clean air, water, and land, all of which are essential to sustaining human and environmental health. Steps toward achieving this goal include the reduction of ground-level ozone (smog) to below the threshold of adverse health effects, and the reduction of Canada’s generation of waste by 50 percent.
The second goal is the sustainable use of renewable resources, which involves shifting forest management from sustained yield to sustainable development. Some of the key areas for decision making are those of harvesting practices (particularly in old-growth forests), reforestation, and the use of forest pesticides. Answers are being provided through the creation of a network of model forests and the creation of Tree Plan Canada.
The third goal is the protection of special spaces and species. The Canadian government has set aside 12 percent of the country as protected space for parks, wildlife areas, and ecological reserves. Similarly, the fourth goal focuses on preserving and enhancing the integrity, health, biodiversity, and productivity of Canada’s Arctic ecosystems. Waste cleanups and assessments have been carried out at numerous sites in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
The fifth goal of the Green Plan is to enhance Canada’s commitment to global environmental security. For example, plans were implemented to phase out the use of human-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methyl chloroform, and other major ozone-depleting substances by the year 2000. In addition, national emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were to be stabilized at 1990 levels. The Green Plan also includes the goals of minimizing the impact of environmental emergencies and making environmentally responsible decisions. The Canadian government is accomplishing these goals by implementing plans for quick, effective responses to environmental emergencies and by providing accurate, accessible information about the environment to all Canadians.
Bibliography
Boyd, David R. Unnatural Law: Rethinking Canadian Environmental Law and Policy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003.
Dwivedi, O. P., et al. “The Canadian Political System and the Environment.” In Sustainable Development and Canada: National and International Perspectives. Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 2001.