Ottawa to cut emissions 20 per cent by 2020 [Globe & Mail]
Kyoto commitments abandoned as Tories target reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality
GLORIA GALLOWAY
Globe and Mail Update
April 26, 2007 at 4:01 PM EDT
TORONTO — The federal Conservatives have reworked their much criticized environmental plan to significantly cut the time frame for reducing the gases linked to climate change.
The strategy unveiled Thursday by Environment Minister John Baird requires Canada to begin cutting the total emissions of the gases as early as 2010. A 20-per-cent reduction from today's levels is forecast by 2020.
That is much sooner than the dates set under the Clean Air Act introduced by the government last year. That legislation, which has essentially been shelved after it was eviscerated by environmentalists and opposition members, would not have stabilized those emissions for another 14 years.
But the new plan, which is estimated to cost the Canadian economy as much as $7 billion to $8 billion per year, does not address all of the complaints lobbed at its predecessor.
It relies on the intensity-based targets that allow industries to increase their greenhouse gas outputs as they increase production. Those types on controls have been repeatedly panned by environmental experts who have demanded absolute reductions.
Under Mr. Baird's strategy, Canada would not meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas until 2025 — 13 years late.
And, while the major industrial emitters account for half of the country's output of greenhouse gas, they will be required to find just 40 per cent of the expected reductions. The rest will come from better fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, other federal initiatives such as the program that will help Canadians retrofit their homes, and provincial efforts to increase energy efficiency.
On the other hand, industry is likely to be unhappy with the new plan because those companies that do not meet stringent reduction targets will have to pay their excess emissions. While there will be flexibility in the way those payments can be made, critics will characterize the penalties as a carbon tax.
"The prices for consumer products like vehicles, natural gas, electricity and household appliances could go up. But it's a small price to pay to ensure a lasting environmental legacy for future generations," Mr. Baird told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
"Our plan strikes a plan between the perfection that some environmentalists may be seeking and the status quo that some in the industry seek to protect."
The new plan also takes aim at air pollution, setting fixed caps on the emission of four gases that cause smog and acid rain. And it promises to regulate products and commercial activities that reduce the quality of indoor air.
The environment was not one of the original five priorities of the Conservatives government, and it wasn't long ago that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was rejecting the notion of manmade climate change. But, as the issue became a concern for mainstream Canada and as the Liberals threatened to make political gains by raising the spectre of climate change, the Conservatives have revised their position.
After years of angrily rejecting Liberal plans to write greenhouse gases into the Canadian Environmental Act — effectively declaring that greenhouse gases are pollutants — Mr. Harper's government has done just that.
Mr. Baird, who repeatedly blamed the previous Liberal government for inaction on the environmental file, recently estimated that meeting Kyoto targets would cost the Canadian economy $51 billion annually — an amount rejected as inflated by many environmentalists.
His plan will give industry a much longer window to make the changes necessary to cut their emissions.
Companies not in existence today will have three years to meet greenhouse gas targets. The grace period has been instituted because the government says it takes a few years to get a plant running efficiently.
All other industries will have to begin reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 18 per cent, per unit of production, by 2010 and then by an additional 2 per cent in each subsequent year. Terms from today's levels by 150 megatonnes per year by 2020 — climbing substantially and then falling in the intervening years.
Of that 150-tonne drop, industry is expected to account for 60 megatonnes, fuel efficiency for cars and trucks is expected to account for 40 megatonnes, improvements in home fuel efficiency and other measures for 10 megatonnes, and the provinces will be responsible for eliminating the final 40 megatonnes.
Companies that have already made strikes to reduce greenhouse gases will be given a credit for their efforts. Those that don't meet the targets by 2010 will be penalized, but they will be given will be given several options for payment.
They will be permitted to buy carbon credits from other Canadians companies that exceed their targets or invest in other measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Baird says they will be able to trade certain credits through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism even though the accord stipulates that countries that do not meet Kyoto targets cannot participate.
Or they will be able to invest in a technology fund that will finance investments in technology that could lead to reductions in greenhouse gas. |
