COP28 summary of outcomes

At the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Canada and nearly 200 other countries reached a historic agreement on the Global Stocktake which calls for groundbreaking goals to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, and, for the first time ever, Parties reached a historic consensus to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. In addition, Canada fought hard so that the world did not backslide on the phasing out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and the phase down of unabated coal power—still the single largest sources of CO2 emissions globally.

Canada was one of the first contributors with $16M to the loss and damage fund that was adopted on day one of the conference, but had been subject to intense year-long negotiations. Canada also continued to champion the importance of delivering on broader climate finance commitments in support of global mitigation and adaptation efforts.

COP28 was the first UN climate change conference to host a Health Day, where global leaders came together to endorse the health and climate change declaration. Canada stands with its international partners in highlighting the risks that a changing climate poses to human health and is committed to playing an active role in global efforts to address these challenges.

Canada worked equally hard to ensure the importance of protecting nature to help fight the climate crisis. One year after Canada hosted COP15, Canada and partner countries secured recognition at COP28 that climate and biodiversity action are mutually reinforcing goals in the outcome text.

A complete summary of Canadian participation at the many COP28 events can be found by visiting daily highlights.

Over $67 million to help developing countries fight climate change

At COP28, Canada announced support for developing countries in efforts to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Most of this funding is through its $5.3 billion climate finance commitment. Canada announced several initiatives amounting to over $67 million in funding including:

Loss and damage

• $16 million to the fund announced at COP28, providing seed funding that builds on Canada’s efforts to address loss and damage in climate-vulnerable countries.
• $750,000 for the Global Shield Centre of Excellence on Gender-Smart Solutions, to help developing countries access financing for recovery from natural disasters and climate shocks and enhance gender-specific approaches in the climate and disaster risk finance and insurance sector.

Adaptation

• $34.2 million to the Special Climate Change Fund, which supports the adaptation needs of small island developing states and strengthens technology transfer, innovation, and private sector engagement for adaptation.
• $5 million to the Least Developed Countries Initiative for Adaptation and Resilience, to help put selected least-developed countries on climate-resilient development pathways.
• $5 million to Enhance Resilience to Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Iraqi Marshlands, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to build resilience in the deteriorating state of this extremely vulnerable and water-scarce region. By supporting the women who steward traditional knowledge, this project will strengthen communities’ resilience and make livelihoods more sustainable.

Mitigation

• $2.2 million for bilateral projects to support the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, and Senegal in support of the implementation of the Kigali Amendment of the Montréal Protocol, to be implemented in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme.

Climate governance and capacity building

• $3 million to the Nationally Determined Contribution Partnership to support gender equality in nationally determined contribution planning and implementation in developing countries.
• $250,000 in supplementary contributions to the Climate Finance Access Network. This is in addition to Canada’s contribution of $5 million to build national technical capacity in the Caribbean by helping to structure applications for access to international climate finance funding.

Halting and reversing biodiversity loss

• $440,000 through the Enhanced Nature Legacy initiative to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Environment Outlook, to develop policy recommendations and best practices to jointly address not only biodiversity loss, but also climate change and pollution.
• $450,000 in 2023–2024 to support the Secretariat of the Forest Climate Leaders’ Partnership, which is working to accelerate global progress to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

New initiatives and partnerships

Canada joined several strategic initiatives and partnerships to advance climate action:

COP28 presidency-led initiatives

Canada supported all eight COP28 Presidency-led declarations, touching on important issues such as climate and health, agriculture, energy efficiency and renewable energy as well as many other important actions. Learn more about each declaration:

• Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action
• COP28 Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action
• COP28 Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge
• COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace
• COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health
• COP28 Gender-Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership
• Global Cooling Pledge for COP28
• COP28 Declaration of Intent on Mutual Recognition of Certification Schemes for Renewables and Low-carbon Hydrogen and Derivatives

Collaboration and global support to reduce oil and gas emissions as well as methane reduction

• Canada and the United States released a renewed commitment on climate and nature ambition, recognizing the shared interests securing a globally competitive net-zero North American economy. Both countries work together to enhance aligned policies on climate change, while delivering economic growth, especially in integrated sectors. This includes the announcement of draft regulations in both countries to sharply reduce harmful methane pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry. Canada along with the Netherlands, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Spain issued a joint statement on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. This effort, led by the Netherlands, aligns with our domestic priority as the first G20 country to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies ahead of 2025.
• Canada, alongside other members of the Net-Zero Producers Forum (NPF) — the United States of America, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — announced the launch of the Upstream Methane Abatement Toolbox. The toolbox provides information on measures taken so far and lessons learned in implementing methane-abatement technologies. Its goal is to highlight existing and planned methane-abatement policies, resources and initiatives across the member countries. The toolbox will benefit the NPF group and others interested in learning from our experiences with methane reduction.

Nature and biodiversity

• Canada, along with 35 other countries, joined the World Wildlife Federation’s Freshwater Challenge. This initiative, launched at the UN 2023 Water Conference, is the world’s most ambitious freshwater restoration initiative to date, aiming to restore over 300,000 kilometres of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands by 2030, or approximately 30 per cent of Earth’s degraded freshwater ecosystems.
• Canada signed the Joint Declaration on Ocean and Climate Action and is committed to the target of sustainably managing 100 per cent of waters under Canada’s authority and safeguarding the long-term health and resilience of the ocean.
• As a member of the International Coral Reef Initiative and as a donor to the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, Canada participated in the launch of the Coral Reef Breakthrough, which aims to secure the future of at least 125,000 square kilometers of shallow-water tropical coral reefs with investments of at least USD $12 billion to support the resilience of more than half a billion people globally by 2030.
• Under the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), Canada announced that it would support the secretariat of the FCLP, which is working to accelerate global progress to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. Under this partnership, Canada is co-leading a Greening Construction with Sustainable Wood coalition with Kenya and France, which has announced a commitment to advance policies and approaches that support low-carbon construction and increase the use of wood from sustainably managed forests in the built environment. Canada is also partnering with the Republic of Ghana to launch Ghana’s Resilient Country Package for Forest, Nature and Climate, which leverages forest and nature-based solutions, as announced by President Akufo-Addo.
• Canada also announced it has rejoined the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). By rejoining the ITTO, Canada further demonstrates its ongoing commitment to halting and reversing deforestation by 2030 as agreed to in the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Use, at a time when the role of forests in addressing global climate and biodiversity goals has never been so important.
• To further strengthen our commitment to soil health, both domestically, through our Canadian Soil Biodiversity Observatory, and as part of Canada's international development assistance work on climate action, soil biodiversity and combating land degradation, Canada has joined the Coalition of Action for Soil Health.  As a member of the Coalition, Canada will have the opportunity to demonstrate sector leadership in this area and help further promote the importance of soil health to climate action, sustainable agriculture, and poverty reduction.

International cooperation in the transportation sector

• Canada signed the Memorandum of Understanding to pursue the establishment of a green shipping corridor between Canada’s West Coast and ports in the United Arab Emirates, Korea and Japan. This builds on the significant action taken over the past few years including the launch of the Canadian Green Shipping Corridors Framework at COP27 which helps guide Canadian organizations and industry in creating green shipping corridors and the recent announcement of the Green Shipping Corridor Program which will establish green shipping corridors and help decarbonize the marine sector in major shipping areas along the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and Canada’s east and west coasts.
• Canada also collaborated on the launch of the Global ZEV Transition Roadmap, a tool to guide on collective actions to be taken to accelerate the transition to ZEVs in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) by making ZEVs the most affordable, accessible, and attractive option compared to fossil fuel alternatives.

Collaboration and global support on decarbonization for industries

• Along with the United States, Canada announced a Rail Decarbonization Task Force to develop a common vision to reduce emissions from the rail sector. This joint effort recognizes the need to work together to fight climate change and decarbonize our integrated rail networks and is a crucial component of our global efforts to reduce emissions and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
• Canada and the United Arab Emirates launched the Cement & Concrete Breakthrough initiative. This initiative reaffirms Canada’s commitment to working with countries, businesses and international partner organizations to accelerate investments in the technologies, tools and policies that the cement and concrete industry needs to realize net-zero by 2050. Together with endorsing countries, international partners and the global cement and concrete industry, the breakthrough initiative will lead a shift that will make clean cement the preferred choice in global markets.
• The Government of Canada adopted the Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI) Green Public Procurement pledge to procure low-emission steel, cement, and concrete in public construction projects. Already a leader in green procurement through its Greening Government Strategy, the Government of Canada now joins Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States in the IDDI pledge, signaling a response to global market demand and a commitment to work together on harmonized emission accounting standards for steel, cement and concrete.

Collaboration and global action for clean energy solutions and achieving net-zero

• Canada, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, known as the Sapporo 5, signed a statement to further advance efforts to secure the global nuclear fuel supply chain, free from dependence on unreliable nations. Canada’s endorsement of this statement reflects the importance of resilient nuclear supply chains to deliver safe and secure nuclear technologies, and the importance of nuclear energy in the transition to net-zero.
• Canada also signed a multilateral declaration supporting the tripling of global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Canada’s endorsement of this declaration reflects the importance of nuclear energy in the transition to net zero.
• The Government of Canada, together with Australia, the European Commission and the United States, jointly launched the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Battery Storage Initiative to supercharge global battery storage deployment. This initiative is championed by the UN Secretary-General and highlights the crucial role of stationary battery storage in integrating renewable energy into the grid and in achieving the clean energy transition.

Bilateral meetings and ministerial engagements

During COP28, Minister Guilbeault held bilateral meetings with a variety of ministers and partners, including:

• ministers from the United Arab Emirates, United States, Brazil, Korea, Germany, St. Kitts & Nevis, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Denmark, Italy, and Vietnam;
• counterparts from the United Nations, including Mark Carney and Selwin Hart; the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Mathias Cormann; the Alliance of Small Island States; the California Air Resources Board; and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on efforts to develop an international, legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution;
• National Indigenous Organizations, youth and parliamentarians;
• civil society leaders, including environmental NGO leaders from around the world and in Canada;
• provincial counterparts from Alberta; British Columbia; Ontario; and Quebec.