Cut Energy Use, Ottawa Says

October 24, 2002 (from the Globe and Mail)

Ottawa plans to ask Canadians to make big personal sacrifices for the Kyoto Protocol by cutting their annual individual emissions of greenhouse gases by one tonne -- or 20 per cent, The Globe and Mail has learned.

For instance, it wants Canadians to cut their vehicle use by 10 per cent a year, which Ottawa estimates could cut greenhouse-gas emissions by half a tonne annually per person. A copy of the plan was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The federal government will unveil the strategy today when it publicly releases a draft plan to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 240 megatonnes a year. That will be a cut of 30 per cent in Canada's emissions from a business-as-usual scenario.

Individual Canadians are each responsible for the emission of about five tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, largely by burning fossil fuels to power their cars and houses, according to federal calculations.

Ottawa is not expecting every Canadian to comply, however, because it is planning for consumer action to achieve between only 6 to 8 per cent, or 15 to 20 megatonnes, of its overall 240-megatonne target.

(If each of Canada's 31 million citizens cut their emissions by one tonne a year, that would actually translate into 31 megatonnes of greenhouse-gas reductions annually.)

Ottawa has so far not threatened any penalties for Canadians who fail to do their part. Instead, it will pack its Kyoto plan with regulations and incentives aimed at changing consumer behaviour and energy use, such as funding for home energy audits.

It is considering rewards for owners who make their homes more efficient and legislation, if necessary, to force car manufacturers to boost their products' fuel efficiency.

The federal plan is sure to anger corporate Canada because it demands far more of business than consumers, as industry groups predicted it would.

Figures in the federal plan show Ottawa wants industry to shoulder 33 per cent to 40 per cent of Canada's overall burden for reducing greenhouse gases. That's 80 to 95 megatonnes of total emission cuts.

Ottawa plans to defend this by saying in the plan that "approximately 50 per cent of emissions are from large industrial emitters." By comparison, consumers are responsible for up to 28 per cent of Canada's emissions and are being asked to handle only 8 per cent of the overall 240-megatonne target.

Ottawa's plan also suggests Canadians could be asked to do more in the months and years ahead to bring consumers' total contribution to the Kyoto cuts to 31 megatonnes, or one tonne a person.

Stung by opposition claims that Kyoto will cost the economy dearly, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien yesterday warned Parliament that global warming will kill Canadians within decades if Canada doesn't ratify and implement the deal.

"Some people will be dying in 30 years in Canada because we have not been responsible today," he told the House of Commons.

Anticipating criticism of the Kyoto strategy, federal officials will take pains to say the blueprint is a rough draft only and could be changed after further talks with provincial governments planned for Oct. 28.

Canadian energy and environment ministers meet Monday in Halifax to discuss Ottawa's draft plan.

The plan divides Kyoto actions into three stages. It assumes Canada has already set in motion 80 megatonnes, or 33 per cent, of emission-reduction measures. It proposes another 100 megatonnes, or 42 per cent, of specific greenhouse-gas cuts and leaves the remaining 60 megatonnes, or 25 per cent, to future initiatives.

Canada is still lobbying the United Nations to get as many as 70 megatonnes worth of so-called clean-energy export credits because it ships cleaner energy such as hydroelectricity and natural gas to the United States, displacing dirtier fuels.

But Ottawa is losing hope that it will obtain these credits and is scrambling to prepare a backup plan that covers this lost credit gap with the final 60 megatonnes of emission-reduction measures.

In its plan, Ottawa envisions spending federal taxpayers' money to buy controversial overseas emission credits worth at least 10 megatonnes, or 4.2 per cent, of its Kyoto target. Business groups have said this spending, possibly in the billions of dollars, would be a wasteful transfer of wealth to outside Canada. Critics also warn that the money, which would buy Canada the right to claim credits for emission reductions that foreigners are making, would finance projects that are difficult to monitor for quality control.

Large industrial emitters alone will shoulder 55 megatonnes of the Kyoto reduction burden.