Saskatchewan assesses progress made on climate change plan

The provincial government is giving itself a good mark on the progress it’s making on its climate change plan.

Saskatchewan’s Climate Resilience Measurement Framework, released in 2018, tracks five key areas: Natural systems, physical infrastructure, economic sustainability, community preparedness and human well-being.

The progress is broken down into 25 resilience measures that are tracked in annual reports, and listed as either good, fair or poor.

The report released Thursday shows 17 of those measures are classified as good and eight are fair. None are listed as poor.

Every measure under the areas of economic sustainability and human well-being are listed as good and have either improved or remained stable from last year.

Saskatchewan failed to meet some of its targets under natural systems and physical infrastructure.

The 2020 target to protect 12 per cent of the provincial land base was missed. As of January, protected areas in Saskatchewan equal 9.8 per cent of the total land base.

The report said there are challenges adding more land as protected areas because a large portion is privately owned agricultural land.

The province also failed to hit the 2020 target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from government-owned buildings to 85,489 tonnes. Total emissions for 2020 were 91,069, which was down from 99,458 tonnes in 2019.

The target for that measure is under review, with a proposal for a target reduction of at least 30 per cent of GHG emissions from government-owned buildings by 2030, based on 2020 levels.

One of the long-term goals the province is working towards is to have 50 per cent of Saskatchewan’s electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030. In 2020, renewable sources accounted for 26 per cent of electrical generation.

The province will continue to measure and track its progress in its climate change strategy, moving toward its target dates.