Ontario to
Join North American Carbon Market
We have, ever since we began posting our
comments in this blog, back in September 2012, concerned
ourselves with the conflictive nexus between Trade and Sustainable Development.
We have dealt in this blog
with the Carbon Footprint of both
products and processes, we have commented on the new regulations regarding GHG aviation
emissions in the EU, and CO2 emissions in shipping the world over. We
have also discussed in more than one presentation, the concept and the
practical aspects of Carbon Border Adjustment.
The North American Carbon Market is worth
the attention of all those who are concerned about Sustainable Development, but
also about Trade, and with finding ways towards win-win solutions directed at
reducing GHG emissions, as in the case presented here, by 2020.
So here is the first part of the report.
Mauricio López Dardaine
SOURCE: BRIDGES from the International Centre
for Trade and Sustainable Development
Trade
news from a sustainable development perspective
16
April 2015
The
Canadian province of Ontario unveiled plans on Monday to join California and
Quebec’s cap-and-trade system under the so-called Western Climate Initiative,
in a bid to curb climate warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Further
details around permit prices and implementation timing will be finalised in the
coming months, according to media reports.
“Climate
change needs to be fought around the globe, and it needs to be fought here in
Canada and Ontario,” said Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s premier, in a press release.
Wynne added that the move would also help to secure a more competitive economy.
Cap-and-trade
programmes work by setting a limit on emissions and issuing permits to covered
industries in line with this mitigation target. Companies can then buy and sell these
permits according to their relative mitigation efforts. In theory, this will
lead to cost-effective emissions reductions, as firms with relatively low
abatement costs will reduce emissions and sell surplus permits to firms with
higher reduction costs.
The Western
Climate Initiative (WCI) is a collaborative sub-national effort between seven
US states and four Canadian provinces to implement emissions-reduction
measures. The group has a regional GHG target of 15 percent below 2005 levels
by 2020 and aims to achieve many of these reductions through its cap-and-trade
programme.
With the
addition of Ontario,
Canada’s second largest provincial GHG emitter, WCI’s carbon market would cover some 61 million
people.
California and Quebec linked their
emissions trading schemes last year, in a world first, and the
inclusion of the transport sector in this scheme from January, makes it the world’s
third largest carbon market.
We here would like to add this information from a publication by Canada's IISD -International Institute for Sustainable Development- in order to help complement the above report. Source's title: "TomorrowNow- Manitoba’s Green Plan:
Toward a New Provincial Climate
Change and Green Economy"
Plan
Consultations Background Paper"
CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES IMPLEMENTED IN JURISDICTIONS
OF CANADA [Other than Manitoba]
Jurisdiction
|
Actions
|
Year implemented
|
Canada
- Federal Government
|
Regulations for both heavy-duty and light-duty
vehicle tailpipe emissions
|
2012
|
Canada
- Federal Government
|
Coal-fired electricity sector regulations
|
2012
|
Canada
- Federal Government
|
Negotiations with oil and gas and other industrial
sectors
|
Ongoing
|
Québec
|
New climate change action plan and adaptation
strategy
|
2012–2020
|
Québec
|
Launched first joint emissions trading with California
|
2014
|
Québec
|
First auction of its cap and trade system
|
2013
|
British
Columbia
|
Review of Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax completed; tax
retained at $30 per tonne
|
2013
|
Nova
Scotia
|
Finalized federal equivalency agreement for
electricity sector GHG regulations
|
2012
|
Ontario
|
Released a
climate change progress report and a report from the
environmental
commissioner
|
2013
|
Owing to some thechnical difficulties we are only now completing the list of climate change policies implemented in jurisdictions of Canada, according to the abovementioned source. See right here bellow.
|
Ontario
|
Released a
climate change progress report and a report from the environmental
commissioner
|
2013
|
|
Emissions
mitigation discussion paper
|
2013
|
|
|
Phase out of
coal-fired power
|
Completed
in 2014
|
|
|
Newfoundland & Labrador
and
Nova
Scotia
|
Finalized
hydroelectric link
|
2012
|
|
Alberta
|
Policy review of
the Specified Gas Emitter Regulation
|
Deadline
extended to June 2015
|
|
|
|
|
|
