This first article about Canada is written from the testimonies of Jean-Yves Duclos and Jean-Thomas Bernard, professors of economics at Laval University in Quebec, and their publication "A future in Quebec : reducing greenhouse gas emissions at lower cost." Thanks to them.

Canada will not meet Kyoto targets, emissions are still about 30% above the targeted level. However, the 10 provinces (and 3 territories) do not share the same attitude. First, Québec has decided to retain the average goal of the Protocol for industrialized countries : to reduce its emissions of GHGs by 6% from its level of 1990. The Québec government is counting on hydropower and wind power to meet this objective.

British Columbia, despite the introduction of a carbon tax, has no target for reducing greenhouse gases. Ontario, responsible in 2006 for over 26% of GHG emissions in Canada, has no emissions reduction target for 2012. However, the province expects to achieve the target of 6% below 1990 levels by 2014. In fact, Ontario produces approximately 25% of its electricity from coal and is now closing all these plants. And the largest source of GHG emissions in Canada, the Nanticoke coal plant, will be closed in 2014. This energy transition should be sufficient to meet the objectives.

Among the major Canadian provinces, I have not mentioned Alberta. The province is responsible for almost 33% of national emissions in 2006, and is developping in a worrying way oil extraction from oil sands, an activity that has a major impact on GHG emissions (directly and indirectly because oil extraction consumes a lot of natural gas and water). The Kyoto Protocol is far for them.

Finally, the Canadian government, although he renounced to Kyoto, has decided to follow the U.S.A (which is understandable since it is their main trading partner) in terms of emissions reduction targets : reduction of the GHG emissions by 17% compared to 2006, this is the National Plan, knowing that between 1990 (the Kyoto base) and 2006, GHG emissions have greatly increased. If they meet this goal by 2020, emission levels will still remain above what it should have been in 2012 after meeting the Kyoto targets. Moreover, even the 2020 target will not be easy to achieve as two sources of emissions are growing : road transport and production of oil from oil sands which is now exploding, mostly in Alberta (two sources that I will try to write about in future articles). Nevertheless, there is currently a decline in emissions due to the recession, the closure of coal plants in Ontario, but also due to the development of renewable energy sources, especially wind power, in all provinces.

Note finally that the provinces with the most aggressive environment policies are those that use heavily hydropower (Quebec, 95% of its electricity ; British Columbia ; Manitoba) and have, for that reason, already quite low GHG emissions.

See you soon, Be green, Ben