New Delhi: After a long wait, Canada has finally revealed its long-awaited climate plan. The main thing about this plan is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to increase the tax on carbon emission. He believes that increasing taxes can curb emissions. In addition, the government has also decided to invest $ 15 billion in this direction.
Currently, Canada faces a federal tax of $ 24 per ton of carbon emissions, which the government has now decided to gradually increase to $ 133 by 2030. If the Government of Canada believes that these decisions will not only achieve the goal of a healthy environment and a healthy economy for Canada, it will also help in achieving the emission reduction target by 2030.
Although Canada’s climate experts have welcomed the rising carbon price and $ 15 billion in new investment in climate action, they say Canada actually needs too much money to join a global clean economy and reduce its emissions is required.
In Paris, at COP21, Canada was assigned to cut emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. This is the target set earlier that year by the former Conservative government. This new plan sets a target of 32-40 percent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. Federal government officials clarified that if all of the plan’s measures are implemented, they will achieve an increased result of up to 40 percent of the current target.
An important part of the new climate plan is the rising price of carbon. Currently, the price of carbon is $ 30 per ton and is expected to increase by $ 10 per year to $ 50 per ton by 2022. With this new plan, after 2022 it will increase to a higher price of $ 15 per year and it will reach $ 170 per tonne by 2030.
However, a remaining hurdle surrounding carbon pricing is that the provinces of Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan are following the court’s challenges to federal carbon pricing. The Supreme Court hearing took place in September and it is not known when the claim will come on the claims of the provinces that the federal government has taken steps outside the scope of its jurisdiction.
Other notable elements of the climate plan include proposals for border carbon adjustments, which place a price on imports from jurisdictions without their carbon value, and strengthen methane regulations.
Shortcomings of the plan include limiting the incoming clean fuel standard, which used to apply to all gaseous fossil fuels in Canada but which no longer includes gas or solid fuels. The plan also excludes mandate targets for zero emission vehicles.
Key features include $ 15 billion in new spending for climate action
• Heavy industry $ 3 billion (steel and oil) to cut emissions in major projects
• Arena Rangbhumi) (and $ 1.5 billion for communities to improve the energy efficiency of buildings like halls)
• Approximately $ 1 billion to expand clean energy electricity grid and electricity storage
• $ 300 million to help transition away from diesel fuel in remote areas, including indigenous communities
• $ 287 million for rebate for zero-emission vehicles
• $ 1.5 billion to increase production and use of low carbon fuel
Although Canada is showing concern with this new plan, the country has a history of not meeting the targets and meeting the policies as well as weakening the industry. Since the early 1990s, Canada has not yet met a single emission reduction target. Canada is set to miss the 2030 target of 77 million tonnes, which would be equivalent to emissions from 16 million passenger cars a year.
Over the past five years, under the leadership of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada has taken a mixed stance on climate. Although Prime Minister Trudeau has repeatedly spoken about the importance of climate action, he has also supported the Alberta oil sands. (In Canada, between 1990 and 2018, the oil and gas sector was the fastest growing source of carbon pollution, primarily due to an increase in carbon-dense oil sands production. In 2017, 27 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions were Oil and Gas were responsible.)
• As part of the Kovid-19 economic reform efforts, Canada has pledged to give at least $ 14.14 billion to support fossil fuels against US $ 11.2 billion for clean energy. Of all the G-20 countries, even before the Kovid-19, Canada spent the most on a per-GDP basis in public finances for fossil fuels.
• In his first call with President Elect Joe Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau not only discussed climate change, but he also raised the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil sands into the United States.
• In 2018, when Kinder Morgan, the owners of the Trans Mountain pipeline abandoned plans to expand the pipeline route (TMX project), the Canadian government spent $ 3.4 billion USD to purchase it.
limate Action Network Canada – Executive Director of Réseau action climat Canada (CAN-Rac Canada), Catherine Abreu, states, “It is good to have policies that, if implemented quickly and with great rigor, can lead to Canada’s Make climate goals more ambitious than the current wasteful Paris pledge. It is also good to see a $ 15 billion investment in climate action.
However, these numbers are lower than the commitments made by our closest trading partners in the European Union and by the United States (led by a new Biden administration). The provinces and territories will have to step up their efforts to promote Canada’s climate ambitions, to reach them where they need to be, and to bring huge investment to the table to bring all governments the transformational changes we need is required.”
Carrying out Catherine’s talk, Dale Marshall, National Climate Program Manager at Enviromental Defense (Environmental Defense) Canada, says, “We welcome a meaningful increase in the retail share of carbon value and a $ 15 billion investment in climate action.” But that amount, which is a small part of what other countries are doing on a per capita basis, cannot work clearly. If Canada is to follow the level of ambition of the US or the EU, Canada should invest $ 270 billion.
It is also disappointing that the federal government continues to ignore measures that reduce Canada’s biggest sources of carbon emissions: the oil and gas sector, and road transport. These steps to reduce emissions are well known – no new oil and gas projects, a gradual phase out of fossil fuel production and use, actions to increase production of electric vehicles. The time has come to work on these measures, with a proper transition plan for workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel sector.