The carbon tax is one of the pillars of Alberta’s new climate change strategy, unveiled Sunday by Premier Rachel Notley and Environment Minister Shannon Phillips.
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The government is moving to phase out the province’s coal-fired power generation by 2030.
An economy-wide tax of $20 per tonne on carbon-dioxide emissions starting in 2017, rising to $30 in 2018.
Alberta’s NDP government is facing accusations the broad guidelines for its multibillion-dollar proposed carbon tax will change it from a climate-fighting levy into an all-purpose slush fund.
The emissions limit will be set at 100 megatonnes, leaving plenty of room for future oil sands growth while also making a few exemptions for new upgrading and co-generation facilities.
The will also implement a methane reduction strategy, with the help of industry, environmental organizations and affected First Nations, to reduce emissions by 45 percent from 2014 levels by 2025. They are proud to have worked with leading environmental organizations to better understand each other’s views and recommend solutions for the oil and natural gas industry that helped inform the policy.
Notley added: “We are going to do our part to address one of the world’s greatest problems”.
Cameron Fenton, Canadian tar sands organizer with 350.org, said that while Alberta’s climate plan a “big step in the right direction for a province that has spent so long on the wrong side of climate action… we still have a long way to go to reach the kind of climate leadership that Canada needs to meet our obligation to 2ºC”. Canada’s government estimates that oil sands-related emissions will almost double to 103 million metric tons by 2020.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a particular goal in mind – he wants to nail down a national plan to take down greenhouse gas emissions before an global climate change summit later this month.
“We will work with the government as these principles are put into practice, and we encourage the province to follow a balanced approach, recognising that our sector can only become a global supplier of responsibly produced oil and natural gas if we are competitive on the world stage”.
“I’m hopeful these policies will lead to a new collaborative conversation about Canada’s energy infrastructure on its merits and to a significant de-escalation of conflict worldwide about the Alberta oilsands”.
Notley credited the recent rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil sands petroleum from Alberta to the United States’s Gulf Coast, with her government’s drive to move forward on climate. “It means reducing carbon emissions, including carbon pricing, towards a climate-resilient economy”, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa Monday night after he wrapped up a First Ministers’ Meeting focused on preparing for the COP21 Paris Climate Conference beginning November 30.
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“WWF Canada is pleased to see the progressive steps proposed by Alberta’s climate change advisory panel”. The province is appointing a negotiator to work with the industry as it tries to avoid stranding capital, or the loss of asset value by hastily rendering plants useless.
