Critics say Canada’s announcement on vehicle emissions are not new and not enough to tackle climate change.
Photo Credit: Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press

Canada’s vehicle emission promise not new: critics

Canada’s environment minister announced measures to curb vehicle emissions at a round table leading up to the UN summit on climate change in New York, but critics say they are not new and not enough.

Listen“This is just a re-announcement of a copycat announcement from the United States,” says John Bennett, national program director at Sierra Club Canada Foundation. “This was announced years ago. It’s not new. It won’t take effect for another 10 years or so and it’s not going to make any difference in Canada’s short-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“What this comes down to is that (Environment Minister) Leona Aglukkaq couldn’t show up (at the Climate Summit) empty handed,” said opposition member of Parliament Megan Leslie. “And so she’s gone down there to announce something they already announced two years ago and that just really brings us in line with what the U.S. is already doing. This is not leadership.”

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Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced in New York that fuel efficiency and emissions regulations have been finalized for cars © Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press

Regulations have been finalized

Draft regulations for light passenger vehicles were announced in November 2012 by a former environment minister. On Monday, Aglukkaq announced those regulations have been finalized for post-2016 cars that will reduce by half their greenhouse emissions as compared to 2008 models. And she said there were plans to introduce new standards for heavy-duty trucks. Bennett dismisses that saying truck standards would only come in after the US implements its own truck regulations. Canada, he says needs its own initiatives.

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John Bennett of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation says Canada needs to limit industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. © CBC

Industrial limits needed

“We need industrial limits on emissions across Canada,” says Bennett. “That’s what Canada needs to do in order to fight climate change.” He says limits are needed in the sectors of oil and gas, power plants, factories—“anything with a large smoke stack. They should have been the first thing we put limits on. But they’re the last thing.”

There are no federal government limits on carbon dioxide emissions. “We’re continuing to spill out millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. Even though we had regulations in place back in 2005, the present government cancelled those regulations. So there is no control on greenhouse gas emissions federally in Canada.”

However some provincial governments have acted to reduce carbon emissions. The province of Ontario phased out coal-powered electricity plants and British Columbia enacted a carbon tax.

‘This is more urgent than anything’

“This is urgent. This is more urgent than anything that is on the plate of the United Nations,” says Bennett. “More people are dying and suffering because of climate change and more people will suffer from climate change than any other cause right now.

“It’s treated as if it’s something off in the future and it’s been treated as something off in the future for 25 years. It’s enough. 25 years of negotiation is enough. It’s time to take some action.”

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