Flaws in Canadian climate plan will increase emissions

Harper standards are 'smoke and mirrors'

Ottawa (31 March 2008) - Major flaws in the federal government’s climate change plan will allow greenhouse gas emissions to grow and lets the polluting oil sands industry off the hook, according to analysis from the Climate Action Network - Canada.

Earlier this month, Environment Canada updated its framework on how it plans to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions created by large industries. The federal government claims new measures in the regulatory framework show it is getting tough on industrial pollution and making the large emission cuts needed to get global warming under control.

The network analyzed Ottawa’s regulatory framework for industrial emissions and found that it contained little more than 'smoke and mirrors.'

One of the Harper government’s new measures is to require oil sands starting operations in 2012 to implement carbon capture and storage - an obligation that won’t come into effect until 2018.

The government’s own projections show that its timeline for carbon capture and storage targets will allow oil sands companies to triple their emissions by 2017. Because this new measure kicks in only for new facilities starting up in 2012 or later, the timeline actually provides incentive for companies to bring new oil sands facilities on stream more quickly to beat the deadline and avoid the carbon capture and storage targets altogether.

Other weaknesses of the regulatory framework include:

The use of intensity targets instead of absolute caps on industrial pollution. Intensity targets allow production to increase, which will cause emissions to grow. Canadian emissions grew 25% from 1990 to 2005, in spite of intensity decreases of 17% over the same period. A better solution would be to legislate absolute emission reductions. For example, the government could set a cap requiring Canadian oil producers to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 50%.
The use of a technology fund, which allows emitters to meet their targets on paper by making payments to the federal government rather than reducing their emissions.
The use of 2006 as a base year for calculating targets. The federal government plans to cut emissions 20% below 2006 levels by 2020. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is obligated to cut our emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. While a 20% cut may sound stronger than a 6% cut, it's actually much weaker. Because action on climate change was delayed for so long, Canadian greenhouse gas emissions rose 33% above the Kyoto commitment by the end of 2005.

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