Canada Finally Unveils Plan To Meet Kyoto Targets
Date: 14-Apr-05
Country: CANADA
Author: David Ljunggren
The chances of the plan being put into action are mixed at best. The opposition Conservatives, who are ahead in the polls and look set to trigger a June election, say they will scrap the initiative if they win power.
Canada has had particularly tough problems with Kyoto, partly because Ottawa agreed to very deep cuts in emissions and also because the country's booming oil and gas producers are large emitters of greenhouse gases.
"The plan will enable Canadians to produce long-term and enduring results while maintaining a strong and growing economy," the government said in a statement.
Kyoto obliges Canada to cut the output of greenhouse gases by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. Canada's overall emissions in 2003 were in fact 24 percent above 1990 levels and Ottawa says it will have to cut 270 megatons of emissions a year by 2012 to meet its target.
The new plan would involve purchasing credits abroad from countries that are under their Kyoto targets and would also call for domestic measures such as helping to finance the phasing out of coal-fired power plants.
Green groups complained the plan was inadequate because it offered so few specific details on how emissions would be cut.
The plan -- which was widely leaked before the official announcement -- calls for relatively mild cuts by the important energy and manufacturing industries, which together account for almost 50 percent of all emissions.
Under previous draft proposals unveiled in 2002, the oil and gas industry, mining and manufacturing sectors -- the so-called large final emitters -- were obliged to cut annual emissions by 55 megatons a year.
The new plan cuts this to 45 megatons, in part because some emitters found the initial target too strenuous. This prompted environmentalists to complain Ottawa was being too lenient with a sector that has a lot of political influence.
"The amount of mandatory reductions by industrial large final emitters ... are so limited that it places what is likely to be an impossibly large burden on the rest of the plan," a coalition of 11 environmental groups said in a statement.
The Canadian Gas Association said the plan was a good starting point.
"There is nothing inherently wrong with a regulatory approach, provided that the regulatory framework reflects energy and industry realities," said association president Michael Cleland.
(US $1=$1.24 Canadian)
