Canada’s federal climate plan is falling further behind its 2030 goal, an auditor general’s review found, alongside separate gaps in follow-through on a coal-export pledge and pesticide monitoring.
Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled the three reports Oct. 29 as part of nine performance audits delivered to the House of Commons. The emissions audit cited a federal projection that greenhouse gas emissions would be 28% below 2005 levels in 2030, compared with Canada’s target of a 40% to 45% reduction.
The government’s 2023 projection had put the decline at 36%. The newer estimate does not incorporate the full effects of measures that have since been canceled or weakened. Separately, government data cited in the audit showed 2024 emissions were 10% below 2005 levels, excluding land use, land-use change and forestry.
The Low-carbon Fuel Procurement Program, which buys fuel for federal aircraft and marine fleets, was first expected to cut emissions by 507 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by fiscal 2030-31. The revised estimate is 80 kilotonnes. The audit cited limited fuel supply and said the program is due to end in fiscal 2026-27, four years earlier than planned.
Environment and Climate Change Canada stopped advancing work on a thermal-coal export ban in November 2024 and formally closed the effort in August 2025, the audit found. The department had not announced the decision publicly by March 2026, although Canada’s pledge to ban exports from and through the country by 2030 remained in place.
The audit estimated that about 17 megatonnes of thermal coal were shipped from Canada in 2025, versus about 16 megatonnes in 2021; U.S.-origin coal accounted for 61% of the 2025 total. The Auditor General’s office said it did not audit the source data and used Global Affairs Canada’s methodology to calculate the 2025 volume.
Canada made a $1 billion loan commitment to the Climate Investment Funds’ Accelerating Coal Transition program and a separate $15 million commitment to the Women-Led Coal Transition Mechanism. By the end of the audit period, about 1% of the Accelerating Coal Transition program’s funding had been made available to coal-to-clean-energy projects.
In 2024, partners in Health Canada’s pesticide monitoring program supplied nearly 4,000 water samples. The resulting analysis produced more than 700,000 records covering over 200 pesticides. Of 233 pesticides assessed, 30 exceeded reference values set to protect aquatic life, and four were in the highest-risk group.
Health Canada had not begun assessing whether regulatory action was needed for two of those four pesticides. The audit also found the department had not completed aquatic-life thresholds for action or established corresponding thresholds for human health. Monitoring results for clothianidin prompted the department to include aquatic-life effects in an ongoing review. The audit recommended completing the thresholds and clarifying what steps should follow when they are exceeded.
