The Yukon government released a report last week detailing the territory’s progress on combating climate change – but it didn’t buy support from the official Opposition nor the Yukon Conservation Society (YCS).

The nearly 50-page progress report states that in the six years since the 2009 Climate Change Action Plan was created, the “majority” of the government’s 33 original goals have been completed or are underway.

But it doesn’t explicitly state what has been completed and what still needs work.

Part of the report takes a look at sector-specific greenhouse gas reduction targets, first created in 2012 by the Yukon government.

It identifies that previous methods used to track transportation sector emissions were not working well – and the numbers were substantially incorrect.

Now, the government is switching up how it tracks these emissions, and has found more reliable sources of data.

In the legislature last week, Yukon Liberal Leader Sandy Silver acknowledged the positive change in tracking emissions, but criticized the plan for not laying out a clear picture for addressing the cause of climate change.

“The update shows (a) decrease in emissions. What we don’t have are measurable actions that are leading to a reduction in transportation emissions,” Silver said.

On the New Democratic Party side of things, both Yukon NDP Leader Liz Hanson and Environment critic Kate White saw issues with the report.

“This government is ignoring the obvious contradiction of trying to establish an oil and gas industry as a pillar of the economy while also claiming to be serious about fighting climate change,” Hanson said last week.

For White, the report lacked a simple break-down for residents to see how they can reduce their own emissions.

“We’re still missing some concrete steps,” she said in an interview this morning.

“When it’s -2, you don’t need to leave the truck idling. But it still happens.”

If government departments were given simple checklists to reduce energy consumption in buildings, she suggests, it could help reduce some of the larger emissions seen in the report.

It would make sense to see some easy-to-enforce actions in the report, White said.

The report identifies that government operations is the sector seeing an increase in emissions from preliminary data – with most of the emissions coming from heating more than 550 government buildings.

The goal from 2012 was to reduce government consumption by 20 per cent by the end of this year, and the progress report dedicates about five pages of methods to try to meet that goal – though it’s unlikely at this point.

“I don’t think that those actions are strong enough to hit those targets,” Anne Middler, a YCS energy analyst, said this morning.

Final data for 2015 will only be finalized 18 months later, in 2017, due to the industry standard time-lag.

Middler said the action plan is starting to get stale.

“We haven’t made a lot of progress over the last six years. It really needs to ramp up in a big way.”

From the original plan, Middler noted, there was an action to complete an energy audit for all government buildings, but only seven have been done since.

What would help, she suggested, is to ensure that all new buildings are built to extremely high standards of efficiency and to find ways to reduce energy waste in existing buildings.

And instead of pushing forward with plans for a robust oil and gas industry, Middler suggests a stronger push to bolster the local food industry.

“Not only does our food come from far away, we’re dependent on a quite vulnerable transportation system,” she said.

The Alaska Highway has been historically out of commission from landslides, which could potentially get more severe due to climate change.

Middler is hopeful that territorial leaders will return from COP21 in Paris with a refreshed mindset and renewed sense of urgency – and would be willing to sit down with stakeholders and discuss updating the climate change plan.

There is no current date set for another climate change plan progress report.

Members of the Yukon’s delegation – which includes the three party leaders – arrived in Paris on Sunday morning.

In a recently launched blog, Hanson is providing insight to readers on the day-to-day proceedings at the conference.