Canada plans to finalize emissions cap by mid-2024: Guilbeault – National | 24CA News
Canada will seemingly publish the ultimate rules of a plan to cap and lower greenhouse gases from the oil and fuel sector by mid-2024, its surroundings minister advised Reuters on Thursday.
The authorities will desk draft rules on the plan by October and expects to publish the ultimate rules by mid-2024 after consultations with provinces, indigenous teams, civil society and trade, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault advised Reuters.
Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, lags many international friends in tackling emissions. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities sees the cap as a key ingredient to implement a pointy discount in air pollution from the oil and fuel sector, answerable for 27 per cent of the nation’s emissions.
The cap, which envisions limits on emissions or doubtlessly elevating the carbon value to incentivize driving down emissions, was first promised in Trudeau’s 2021 election marketing campaign. It has confronted delays amid opposition from trade and a few provincial lawmakers.
The authorities’s framework for eliminating inefficient fossil gas subsidies launched on Monday was anticipated to abolish $1 billion in annual federal help for native oil, fuel and coal manufacturing, Guilbeault mentioned.
“As per our Glasgow commitment, we eliminated last year international fossil fuel subsidies. Now we’re doing domestic,” Guilbeault mentioned in a telephone interview, referring to the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed on the COP26 summit in 2021.
Canada’s announcement to get rid of such subsidies made it the primary G20 nation to ship on a 2009 dedication to rationalize and section out authorities help for the sector.
Climate coverage analysts mentioned the framework was an essential step ahead, however fell brief by persevering with to permit authorities help for oil and fuel tasks that plan to scale back emissions by way of applied sciences similar to carbon seize and storage (CCS).
Guilbeault mentioned he estimated the tax credit score for CCS tasks in Canada to signify about $15 billion price of investments.
“We’re not counting on CCS to solve all of our climate change problems. It will account for maybe five per cent of our overall plan. It could be less than that by 2030,” he mentioned.
Canada might be introducing a regulation to make sure that its electrical energy grid is carbon impartial by 2035, Guilbeault mentioned, a transfer he mentioned would require help from CCS. He additionally expects CCS to contribute in direction of decarbonizing “hard-to-abate” sectors similar to aluminum and cement.
“We can anticipate that there will still be some gas on the grid in 2035 in Canada, but that gas would have to be abated. So some CCS probably in the electricity sector,” Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist, mentioned.
“You’ll see that CCS has a role to play in ensuring that we achieve our 2030 targets, but it’s not a magic bullet,” he mentioned.
