There is no issue of more importance than the environment. If we can’t learn to live sustainably on this unique and wonderful planet, civilization as we know it will collapse. We may even follow the billions of other species into extinction. It is, therefore, essential that we monitor our progress in achieving sustainability—keep a scorecard so to speak.

The most immediate of our challenges is global warming. In order to score our country’s success on that front, one of the country’s leading energy/environmental think tanks, the Pembina Institute, partnered with Simon Fraser University “to compile a comprehensive assessment of the state of climate action by governments across Canada.” Their report, entitled All Together Now was released this week and is worth a read by anyone interested in how well Canadians are meeting their responsibility in ensuring our species has a sustainable future.

The assessment considered 23 policy indicators including enshrining a net-zero target in law, establishing independent accountability mechanisms, converting to green electricity supply, setting zero-emissions standards for vehicles, and buildings code revisions to ensure zero-carbon homes. Of particular importance, also assessed was how well governments included plans for re-skilling and supporting workers whose industries would undergo changes as part of the energy transition.

The good news is that if the country’s governments continue with the measures they have implemented or announced, we are on track to meet our commitment to the international community of reducing our emission levels 40-45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

The performance of the various governments is shown in the graph to the right. Green indicates “strong leadership,” yellow “some leadership” and red “little or no policies in place.”

Top performer is B.C., the only province that ranked higher than the federal government. After the feds comes Quebec. All three have shown strong climate leadership, with B.C. receiving green scores for almost 90 percent of the indicators it was rated on.

The slackers are the usual suspects, Alberta and Saskatchewan. These two provinces produce nearly half of Canada’s emissions with only 14 percent of the country’s population. Both provinces not only lag in developing policies to reduce emissions, they actively oppose various federal policies, especially if those policies affect the oil and gas industry, the country’s major source of emissions.

Governments that lag on transitioning to low-carbon growth do their people no favours. The world is moving toward sustainability and failing to keep up will mean businesses and workers missing out on new technologies and new industries. Some Canadian governments are scoring well on this critical issue, some unfortunately are failing.