 Top News - May 3, 2008 |
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| Targets met, emissions not reduced |
By Kevin Ma
Staff Writer
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Alberta’s top polluters have reached their greenhouse gas reduction targets, according to the province, but many of them did so without actually cutting emissions.
The province released initial results of its Specified Gas Emitters Regulations Wednesday. The rules, part of the province’s climate change law, required any Alberta plant that emitted more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year to cut their emissions per unit of production by 12 per cent by March 31.
About 100 of the plants have reported in so far, said Alberta Environment spokesperson Kim Capstick, and all of them have met their targets. Companies cut emissions by some 2.6 megatonnes through a combination of greater efficiency and carbon offsets (paying other parties, usually farmers, to reduce their emissions), equivalent to taking about 550,000 cars off the road.
The province also collected some $40 million through its Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund. The fund lets companies meet their emission targets by buying credits at $15 a tonne, the idea being this money would be invested in technologies such as carbon-capture and sequestration that would produce actual emission cuts. A law tabled in the legislature this week proposed an arms-length group that would invest the money for the province.
Dan Woynillowicz of the Pembina Institute criticized the fund as a cheap way for companies to avoid cutting their own emissions. He noted the $40 million put into the fund so far represented about 2.6 million tonnes of emissions cuts that had yet to actually occur. "There’s no guarantee whether the fund will create reductions elsewhere." Nor does it have any limits on contributions, he said, unlike a similar federal fund, meaning a company could use it to meet its reduction targets indefinitely.
Capstick said the $15-a-tonne requirement would push companies to invest in efficiency improvements. "These are big cheques they’re writing." The fund was not intended to produce a tonne of emission reduction per every $15 in it, she added. |
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