Ottawa, June 1, 2011 – Canadian governments have taken their own paths to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leading to inefficiency and a lack of coordination, says a Conference Board of Canada report released today – part of its CanCompete research program.
Through a review of federal, provincial, and territorial climate change action plans, the report, Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Canada, reveals how the approach to reducing emissions has been neither effective nor efficient.
“Despite a patchwork of uncoordinated federal and provincial initiatives, Canada appears to have stopped the growth in GHG emissions. Since 2005, Canada’s GHG emissions have stabilized and begun to decline. Recently released estimates for 2009 confirm this trend. However, without an accelerated pace of climate policy action, Canadian governments are unlikely to meet their own targets,” said Len Coad, Director, Energy, Environmental and Technology Policy. “Not only is policy coordination among governments more likely to reduce emissions at a lower cost, it would help governments to learn from the practices of others.”
Canada’s annual GHG emissions increased by 142 million tonnes between 1990 and 2008. Although emissions stabilized between 2004 and 2008, a strong downward trend has not emerged yet. Each province has set a 2020 target for emission reductions, but action will have to accelerate or objectives will be missed. The national target of a 17 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 (from a 2005 baseline) and the individual provincial targets are being addressed through a complex, diverse, and opaque mix of instruments and programs.
In general, provincial plans are well-aligned to address their major sources of emissions. As the largest energy producer in Canada, Alberta has the largest GHG emissions; its plan emphasizes reducing emissions through greener energy production and technologies such as carbon capture and storage. Ontario and Quebec, which generate the second and third most GHG emissions, are focusing their plans on reducing energy consumption and, in Ontario’s case, increasing its reliance on green electricity. The federal government, meanwhile, is taking action on promoting renewable electricity generation and regulating vehicle emissions.
A broad range of tools is being used to reduce emissions. They include:
- voluntary markets for carbon reduction;
- regulatory limits on emissions intensity;
- proscriptive regulations (such as tailpipe emissions and electricity generation emissions);
- communication programs;
- investment programs;
- capital subsidies, and
- government initiatives to ‘green’ their own operations.
Carbon pricing – in the form of cap-and-trade mechanisms or a carbon tax – has not been broadly implemented. Quebec and British Columbia have adopted carbon taxes, while Alberta has an intensity cap on large final emitters. The intensity cap is one policy instrument where a coordinated approach may produce more efficient results.
This report is part of the CanCompete program, a three-year program of research and dialogue is designed to help leading decision makers advance Canada on a path of national competitiveness. The report is publicly available from our e-Library.