Greenhouse emissions in Newfoundland and Labrador
First steps behind us, much more be done to meet our 2010 target
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From Monday, July 12 the North Eastern Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG-ECP) are meeting in Lenox, Massachusetts, to discuss regional issues, including the progress of the regional Climate Change Action Plan. The NEG-ECP Climate Change Action Plan was put in place in 2001. It sets three long-term goals:
- Reduce regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.
- Reduce regional GHG emissions by at least 10% below 1990 levels by 2020.
- Reduce regional GHG emissions by 75-85% in the long-term.
The progress of NEG-ECP toward these goals has been monitored and evaluated since 2001 by, among others, Atlantic Canadian Sustainable Energy Coalition (ACSEC), a coalition of non-governmental organizations, including Ecology Action Centre, Sierra Club Canada – Atlantic, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, and ECO-PEI.
“The NEG-ECP Climate Change Action Plan has laid the foundation for state and provincial climate change action plans that are now being implemented across the region,” says Brennan Vogel of Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre.
“Although some progress has been made, none of the three Atlantic Provinces evaluated here are on track to reach their 2010 milestone of reduction emissions to the 1990 levels. In 2008, the last year for which the data are available, the greenhouse emissions in N.S., NB. and N.L. were 9.9%, 12.8% and 6.9 % above their 1990 emissions, respectively” says Dr. Piotr Trela of the Sierra Club Canada-Atlantic. “And even these numbers may paint too an optimistic picture, as the 2008 numbers may be artificially lowered by the economic crisis that began that year”.
Progress in Newfoundland and Labrador
“As a part of NEG-ECP regional initiative, Newfoundland and Labrador has committed to bring down our greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2010. We are not on track to meeting this commitment: our emissions oscillate around 7% above this target. Even more troubling, the more honest measure of our performance, our per capita emissions, are up 21% ” says Dr. Trela.
“A look into 2004-2008 data allows to test whether in greenhouse emissions the provincial government is in the driver seat or merely a passenger driven by forces beyond its control.
If the former were true, that is, if the emissions trends were shaped by the government policies, then we would have seen a sustained decline in emissions, the way we see it, for example, in New Brunswick. Instead, our emissions go up and down from year to year, controlled not by the government actions, but by the whims of weather, global markets, and by ups and downs of pulp and paper, fisheries and offshore oil.
This is not to say that the provincial government accomplished nothing. It has done a remarkable job withing its own operations: it increased fuel efficiency of its vehicle fleet and holds the buildings built, or renovated, with government's money to a high energy-efficiency standard. This is a leadership by example and the government has to congratulated on it. But now the time is to move outward and make the same difference in places where the vast majority of emissions do happen: in the industry and in the households.
To accomplish this we need a coordinated action involving education, grants, tax incentives and penalties, energy efficiency codes for buildings, ships, and vehicles, as well as effective and enforced regulations. We also need to involve market mechanisms. This means putting a price on carbon emissions, because by allowing to dump carbon into the atmosphere for free, we provide an unfair advantage to the fossil fuels industry, a big indirect subsidy, a subsidy that perverts the market by supplying it incomplete and distorted information. Garbage in, garbage out.
If there is one concrete area, where a dramatic improvement could be achieved, I would suggest banning, or at least pricing, offshore flaring, burning the gas that comes out with crude oil” continues Dr. Trela. “Not only is this an indefensible waste of our nonrenewable resources, but also a major source of greenhouse emissions in the province, much larger than all personal cars, and almost as large as manufacturing, mining and oil extraction combined. Since the offshore oil is regulated by the C-NLOPB, the provincial representatives on its board need to work harder.”
Wider context
“The strong action at the regional level, such as the NEG-ECP framework, is now more important than ever, because the federal government is making great strides … backwards, axing home energy efficiency program, gutting the environmental protection legislation, backtracking on its emissions targets, channeling billions of taxpayers dollars into subsidies for fossil fuel industry, and, in effect, outsourcing the writing of the Canadian climate change policies to the US Congress. With such a spectacular failure of leadership in Ottawa, our regional leaders need to step up to the plate”, concludes Dr. Trela.
For interviews or more information on our evaluation of the progress in meeting the NEG_ECP targets in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland &Labrador please contact:
Newfoundland & Labrador
Dr. Piotr Trela
Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Can. Chapter Ph: 709-753-7848. Email: piotr@sierraclub.ca
Nova Scotia
Brennan Vogel. Ecology Action Centre. Ph: 902.442.0199. Email: energy@ecologyaction.ca
New Brunswick
Raphael Shay. Ph: (506) 458-8747. Email: info@conservationcouncil.ca