This is the kind of ambition we require from our leaders: an acknowledgement of the severity of climate change, and an understanding that renewable energy sources are already profitable and on their way. The get-together was a precursor to the big global climate change conference in Paris later this month.
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A new set of renewable energy guidelines and targets set down by the government of Alberta, known as the Climate Leadership Plan, has been introduced in order to push the province’s transition from coal to new green energy options.
CanWEA says that although Alberta’s new renewable energy targets are ambitious, they are achievable and can be met while maintaining a reliable electricity grid.
The Pembina Institute has historically supported a higher carbon tax than what was proposed on Sunday – with $40/tonne in 2016, $50/tonne in 2017 and $60/tonne in 2018 – but the plan is an indisputably major upgrade from the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER), which taxed Alberta’s largest emitters (103 at last count) at the equivalent of .80/tonne.
“Overall the business community should not perceive carbon pricing as a significant economic threat”, the group noted, as long as governments give targeted aid to the exposed sectors.
Each country within the United Nations climate process was required to submit its own national contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The proposal comes as world leaders prepare to discuss plans to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at a summit in France starting November 30.
But as remarkable as it was for the likes of both oilpatch billionaire Murray Edwards, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s chairman, and former US vice president Al Gore, an outspoken advocate for tougher climate action, to back the plan, not everyone is singing its praises.
Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, said on Tuesday it would aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, although it offered only hints of how it hopes to slow climate change. Alberta will also phase out coal power plants in the province by 2030.
“Not only are we an important producer of oil… but we’re also the third largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world”. “The government of Alberta is going to stop being the problem and we are going to start being the solution”.
The carbon tax is one of the pillars of Alberta’s new climate change strategy.
“If this is a truly revenue neutral tax, every dollar raised through new carbon taxes should be made available to industry in order to reinvest into new technology to achieve emission reductions”.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said Notley should call it what it is – a straight-up tax.
“We will continue to monitor (the tax spending) as we go forward with it to make sure that we’re getting the outcomes we’re seeking”, said Notley.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the New Democratic Party was victorious in the recent Canadian federal election.
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Trudeau will then deliver a speech at Canada House in Trafalgar Square, followed by a sit-down with Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street where it’s expected climate change, anti-terrorism measures and the Canada-European Union free trade agreement will be on the agenda.
