Alberta’s climate change strategy revealed
Posted Nov 22, 2015 5:05 pm.
Last Updated Nov 22, 2015 5:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Premier Rachel Notley unveiled her NDP government’s climate change strategy on Sunday in Edmonton.
The premier said Alberta needs to change, and once again become a leader in the country. She said the strategy focuses on creating a sustainable, strong and visionary energy sector in Alberta.
The strategy calls for a carbon tax, that would start at $20 per tonne of greenhouse gases produced in 2017, and increase to $30 per tonne by 2018.
“We’re going to reduce pollution by putting a price on it. We all contribute to carbon pollution, and we can all be part of the solution,” Notley said. “By we, I mean industry and mining. I mean all of us in our cars. I mean the many ways we currently burn carbon and put it in the atmosphere for our children to breathe.”
All of the revenue generated from the tax will be put back into the province, although it isn’t clear where the money will then be allocated.
The government will also implement an accelerated phase-out of coal.
“We will phase out all coal emissions by 2030, and we will encourage the generation of clean, renewable electricity in its place,” Notley said.
The other big announcement made by the premier was a cap on greenhouse gas emissions created by the oil sands industry.
Currently, oil sands generate about 70 megatonnes of carbon a year. The NDP will legislate an emissions limit of 100 megatonnes.
“The simple fact is this,” Notley said. “Alberta can’t let its emissions grow without limit, but we can grow our economy by applying technology to reduce our carbon output per barrel. That is what this limit will promote.”
Notley is off to Ottawa on Monday to meet with the prime minister, as well as other provincial and territorial leaders. She will then head to Paris the following week, for the United Nations climate change conference.
Officials with the Broadbent Institute, a think tank founded by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, called the plan a “game changer”.
Executive director with Broadbent, Rick Smith, told 660 NEWS, the health of Albertans will benefit from the phasing out of coal-fired power generation.
“The Canadian Medical Association has calculated that because Alberta still derives much of its electricity from the burning of dirty coal, unless something changes between now and 2030, thousands of Albertans will die prematurely; thousands of Albertans will visit emergency rooms with smog-related illnesses,” Broadbent said.
Smith added, the creation of a comprehensive energy efficiency program will be an enormous employment generator and save Albertans money on their electricity bills.
The executive director of the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance, Jesse Rowe, also weighed in on the announcement.
“From an energy efficiency perspective, the announcement was quite good,” Rowe said. “We haven’t been doing very much on energy efficiency in the province for about 20 years now and this brings us into line with what every other province is doing on the file.”
Mike Hudema with Greenpeace Canada called the climate plan a pretty historic step after years of rejection from previous governments.
“The government finally listened to people demanding climate action; what we’re going to see is a plan that will start to slowly reduce Alberta’s emissions will allow Alberta to create jobs, diversify its economy and start taking advantage of the tremendous renewable energy potential the province has to offer,” Hudema said.
However, he did express concern over the lack of short or long-term emission reduction targets, but that Greenpeace will work with the government to try and create targets, and ensure they live up to what science is telling us we need to do.
