Canada Vows To Disclose GHG Emissions Targets Before G7 Meetings in June

Canada has pledged to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions goals before the G7 meetings in June, as the federal government instructed the provinces to set and submit realistic targets.

Federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, it was learned, sent letters to her provincial and territorial counterparts over the weekend, asking them to update the targets based on 2014 information. “This contribution is expected to be national in scope and reflect action by all levels of government with quantifiable post-2020 emission reductions,” Toronto Star reports Aglukkaq saying in individual letters to the provinces. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in Panama City recently said, the provinces have been instructed to come up with their own emission targets that will be incorporated into the national goal.

Recently, Ontario announced it will implement a carbon cap and trade scheme to curb its own GHG emissions, copying the one launched by California in late 2012. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said the plan is to impose CO2 limits for each industry existing in the province, including a price for the global-warming gas.

Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental group, lauded the move. It is believed pricing carbon is one of the better ways “to reduce emissions and address climate change,” Cherise Burda, Ontario director at the Pembina Institute, said.

The carbon cap prompts affected industries to purchase emissions credits at market prices. In excess they would need to pay more. With that in mind, the emissions credits will effectively put the industries to contain their emissions within what they only have, thus helping gradually reduce emissions.

Ontario, hosting 40 percent of Canada’s 35.5 million residents, is Canada’s manufacturing centre. Some 24 percent of the country’s carbon emissions comes from this province. But Canada’s biggest GHG emitter is Alberta, contributing 36 percent of emissions. It is Canada’s centre of oil and gas industry.

A Bloomberg report states that Ontario’s annual emissions is about 170 million metric tonnes. A third of that comes from transportation.

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