Mitigate Climate Change

Mitigation refers to activities that reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or enhance the storage of greenhouse gases stored in ecosystems. Ontario’s forests and wetlands are important to climate change mitigation because they have the potential to remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere and thereby slow global warming. One of the ways Ontario is working to reduce the effects of global climate change is through a partnership with Trees Ontario to plant 50 million trees across southern Ontario by the year 2020.

Activities that reduce or prepare for impacts of climate change refer to adaptation. Adaptation complements measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

 

Use the Tree Atlas to learn more about Ontario's trees, and to find out what trees grow best where you live.

 

 

 

Learn more about forest carbon in harvested wood products and the role of managed forests in climate change mitigation.

 

 

 

Planting trees helps fight climate change. Learn about tree planting to do your part.

 

What are carbon sinks and why are they important?

Human activities release about 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. On average, approximately half of these emissions remain in the atmosphere causing elevated levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. The other half is removed by our lands, forests and oceans and stored as carbon sinks. These carbon sinks are extremely important - without them, climate change would be happening twice as fast.

What are we doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

The Ontario government has set targets for reducing greenhouse gases in the Go Green Action Plan on Climate Change:
• 6% below 1990 levels by 2014 (a reduction of 61 megatonnes relative to business-as-usual).
• 15% below 1990 levels by 2020 (a reduction of 99 megatonnes relative to business-as-usual).
• 80% below 1990 levels by 2050