The Pembina Institute monitors and reports on the extent to which the government is implementing the full range of policies and measures needed to adequately reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in Canada, starting now.

Canada and Kyoto

Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, thereby accepting a legal obligation to reduce its GHG emissions to 6% below the 1990 level during 2008-12. Canada is allowed to meet its target in part by financing projects that reduce emissions in poorer countries.

The Government of Canada agreed to its Kyoto target when the protocol was negotiated in December 1997, but it did not put forward a comprehensive plan outlining policies and measures designed to meet the target until November 2002.

The government published a revised Kyoto plan in April 2005. Although Pembina was highly critical of weaknesses in the plan, the plan did aim to reach Canada’s Kyoto target.

In January 2006, Canada elected a new federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The new government cancelled or failed to renew most major federal climate change initiatives. It also rejected Canada’s Kyoto target, arguing that Canada’s emissions had risen too far above the target under the previous government.

In the first few months of 2007, the government announced a series of new GHG-reduction initiatives, as well as new targets for Canada’s total GHG emissions. The short-term target is to end the growth in Canada’s emissions by 2010-12. The medium-term target is to reduce emissions to 20% below the 2006 level by 2020, leaving Canada’s emissions about 2% above the 1990 level in 2020. Despite saying it will make “best efforts” towards Kyoto, the government is therefore proposing that Canada still not reach its Kyoto target by 2020 – a decade after the protocol’s deadline.

Moreover, Pembina’s analysis shows that the initiatives that the government has announced have little chance of ending the growth in Canada’s emissions by 2010-12. We have also identified numerous loopholes and gaps that undermine the credibility of the government's target for 2020.

Canada's GHG emissions had risen to 25% above the 1990 level by 2004. Year on year changes in emissions are uneven, but the underlying trend is strongly upwards.

A Credible Federal Plan

A credible federal plan to reduce GHG pollution must include a full set of policies and measures to significantly reduce emissions from all sources. To achieve reductions on the scale required, the plan must rely above all on regulated targets and standards, effective financial incentives, and major investments in public infrastructure such as transit.

Key measures that the Pembina Institute advocates include the following:

Regulations

• to set mandatory GHG targets (combined with emissions trading) for heavy industry and airlines
• to set standards for fuel economy or GHG emissions from cars and light trucks
• to strengthen standards for the energy efficiency of appliances and equipment

Financial incentives

• for the production/consumption of electricity from low-impact renewable sources
• for the co-generation of heat and electricity
• for lower-emission freight transportation
• for the construction of new residential and commercial buildings that have low net energy consumption
• for energy efficiency retrofits to existing residential and commercial buildings

• for GHG emission reductions and enhanced carbon storage in agriculture and forests

Infrastructure

• investments in GHG-reducing infrastructure (direct, or via provincial and municipal governments)
• targeted transfers to provincial governments in return for key provincial policy actions

Public investments in

• the development of low-GHG technology for future deployment
• public awareness about climate change and personal actions to reduce GHG emissions

If Canada is to cut its emissions quickly enough to play a responsible part in preventing dangerous climate change, these measures must amount to a “massive scale-up of efforts”, as called for by the federal environment commissioner in her 2006 report.

What is Pembina Doing?

The Pembina Institute monitors and reports on the extent to which the federal government is implementing a GHG reduction plan that meets these criteria.