Minister meets with over 60 countries from the Greening Government Initiative

Today, the Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board, participated in the fifth meeting of the Greening Government Initiative (GGI)—an international forum for countries to exchange information, promote innovation and share best practices in support of global efforts to green national government operations and meet Paris Agreement commitments on climate change.

Titled “Greening Government Fleets: Towards Zero-Emission Vehicle Fleets,” the meeting was co-hosted by the White House Council on Environment Quality (CEQ) and the Government of Canada’s Centre for Greening Government, and gathered participants from more than 60 countries across five continents.

During the meeting, Minister Fortier underscored Canada’s commitment to green the federal government’s fleets. Minister Fortier noted that at least 75% of light-duty vehicles purchased for the government’s conventional fleet must be electric or hybrid, with the ultimate goal of a 100% electric fleet by 2030.

Minister Fortier pointed out that the Government owns 30,000 buildings, 20,000 infrastructure assets, and more than 40,000 vehicles, and that it purchases over $18 billion worth of goods and services each year. She reminded participants of the importance for countries to lead by example, set goals to reduce emissions in their government operations and leverage their purchasing power to seize opportunities for sustainable choices, and accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy.

The meeting featured presentations from Canada, Israel, and Norway that outlined each country’s experiences with decarbonizing their government fleets:

Chris Lindberg, Senior Advisor for Fleets at Canada’s Centre for Greening Government, highlighted lessons learned from greening the Government of Canada’s fleets.
Dekel Cohen, Senior Deputy to the Accountant General and Head of the Assets and Logistics Division, Israeli Ministry of Finance, spoke about his agency’s procurement and infrastructure roadmap to transition the Israeli government fleet to a mixture of electric, hybrid and plug-in-hybrid vehicles.
Odd Olaf Schei, Senior Advisor, Norway Directorate for Public Administration and Financial Management, shared insights on the factors that have led to the successful deployment of electric vehicles in Norway, including regulatory mechanisms and national availability of charging and energy storage infrastructure.
The question-and-answer session following the presentations reflected the reality that countries face common challenges and opportunities in pursuing clean energy fleets, and that GGI provides a valuable forum for insight and support for countries as they work to meet their own climate and sustainability goals.

GGI plans to hold its sixth meeting in January 2023, which will focus on countries’ efforts to achieve higher levels of sustainability across government-owned and government-leased facilities.