Quebec to play tough with carbon emissions
Aims to introduce cap-and-trade system
By RENÉ BRUEMMER, MONTREAL GAZETTEMAY 11, 2009
Quebec is poised to become the first jurisdiction in North America to enforce a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions with the tabling of a new bill Tuesday.
If adopted into law, the proposals could become the template used by the rest of Canada and even the United States, environmental experts said.
Line Beauchamp, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, announced yesterday the Liberal government would introduce a bill that would give the government the powers to institute a cap-and-trade system with co-operating states and provinces as early as 2012, if adopted into law.
The system acts as an incentive to cut emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming by allowing companies that produce less carbon than their caps permit to sell their unused quotas to companies that exceed their limits.
Quebec became the first province to create a carbon tax in 2007, collecting just under one cent per litre from petroleum companies in the province, which will raise about $200 million to pay for energy-saving initiatives.
“We have the carbon tax, but it is insufficient in the long term,” Beauchamp said in a speech to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. “We need to have something that will let us work on the international stage, giving Quebec more all-encompassing measures to combat greenhouse gases.”
Beauchamp would not go into specifics before today’s legislature announcement, but sources confirmed details released in Le Devoir over the weekend were accurate: the new law would give the government the power to choose certain commercial and industrial sectors that will be obliged to report their emissions and submit to a reduction program. Companies that emit more than 25,000 tonnes will be targeted, Beauchamp said, although that number could change.
At present neither the American or Canadian governments have adopted a cap-and-trade system, although new president Barack Obama has expressed interest in the system adopted by the European Community in 2005.
In the absence of federal consensus, four provinces and seven states banded to create the Western Climate Initiative, created by California in 2007 and espousing the cap-and-trade system. Together, the 11 participants make up the majority of the North American population and its market activity, Beauchamp said, so an agreement among them would be widely used. Last summer, Ontario and Quebec signed a deal to work on a market-based trading system to cut gases.
“It’s very good news,” said Sidney Ribaux, executive director of Quebec environmental group Équiterre. “It’s clear that putting limits on carbon emissions is the way to go. ... By being first in Quebec it puts forward rules that others will follow because corporations don’t want 10 different regulations,” so any later legislation is likely to follow Quebec’s lead, Ribaux said.
If all goes according to plan, the bill could become law before the National Assembly convenes for the summer, and regulations could come into effect as of Jan. 1, 2010, Ribaux said.
At the same time, Beauchamp announced that the government would be tabling a bill for a comprehensive new water law today regulating use and withdrawals that recognizes the province’s water reserves as part of the common heritage of Quebec that must be protected
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