Meeting Canada’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the year 2030 to 30% below 2005 levels, or 30megatonnes annual emission reduction, is no small measure. In fact, it is a monumental undertaking. Facing uncertain winds blowing from our Southern neighbours makes the goal no less challenging.
Political leaders at both the Federal and Provincial levels seem more-or-less in agreement to this direction, but less so on how it can be achieved. Still, the clock is ticking and so the Federal and Provincial Governments are needing to move forward. At this point, it appears that the different levels of Government are out of sync with one another, and there is a danger that an unmanageable patchwork of regulation by jurisdiction may emerge. However, these are early days, and one might expect these initial difficulties, considering the scope and complexity at hand.
On that note, BioApplied was invited to participate in a first consultation meeting concerning the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) as hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The meeting was held at the John Diefenbaker Building in Ottawa, and included approximately 140 stakeholders from industry, Government, and academia. The meeting moderator presented the contents of a discussion paper and solicited input from those gathered. The paper framed the proposed regulatory approach and provided for context, the regulatory and incentive approaches in Provinces and Territories, the USA and specific US States, as well as the European Union. Furthermore, it discussed the scope of a CFS to include the full range of transportation, Industrial sources of emission, and buildings (space heating). Measuring carbon intensity and the compliance mechanisms required to implement the CFS were also part of the paper and discussion.
ECCC’s consultation approach at this meeting was to receive and weigh the inputs of those to be impacted by a CFS. Participants representing a wide range of interests were all very well spoken and excelled at contributing the viewpoint of their constituents. There is no doubt, however, that to achieve the stated GHG reduction measures, the status quo cannot prevail. If one thing from the meeting became apparent, it is that the ECCC has a major task on its hands, to strike a balance between the input received and the need for the CFS to drive significant change.
And, although the purpose of the meeting was not to debate or draw a group consensus, one could acknowledge from the comments and discussions of the day, that building the right regulatory foundation, and having a common regulatory framework across Canada is a sentiment shared by most.
For the full discussion paper, please click Clean Fuel Standard: Discussion Paper
Nova Scotia has initiated a consultation process through the Department of Environment as well. Ryan Duff; senior consultant with BioApplied, participated in an initial meeting on January 24th, and a stakeholder consultation meeting on March 15th. Nova Scotia has identified a provincially tailored Cap and Trade system as the preferred approach to comply with the Federal carbon pricing benchmark.
Ryan takes the time to summarise the Cap and Trade program at this stage of development. You are welcome to download a copy of that summary, by visiting our ‘Resource’ page
We welcome your comments or questions and invite you to submit those to our central email info@bioapplied.com
Greg Maloney
Principal Partner
