Ottawa – With Canada’s international environmental reputation at rock bottom at the Durban climate negotiations, Friends of the Earth Canada has decided to donate its services to help Canada.
“Canada’s Minister of the Environment showing up in Durban without domestic regulations in place is shocking,” said Beatrice Olivastri, CEO, Friends of the Earth Canada. “So we’ve prepared a model regulation, Reduction of Releases of Toxic Substances Causing Global Warming, that mirrors exactly what our government needs to finally regulate greenhouse gas pollution from the largest emitters in Canada.”
Friends of the Earth has provided an efficient, actionable model regulation in exactly the format needed to plug it into the regulatory process. The model regulation targets reporting factories and plants to the National Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory because they operate stationary facilities which are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. The required reductions would be accomplished in stages and based on data reported by the approximately 800 emitters themselves.
In Copenhagen, Canada lowered its commitment to a target of 17 percent of greenhouse gases by 2020 using a 2005 baseline. The model regulation, Reduction of Releases of Toxic Substances Causing Global Warming, shows the government how to meet this target and schedule using mandatory information reported by factories and facilities in Canada since 2004.
While Friends of the Earth believes dramatic emission reductions are necessary to save the world from catastrophic warming, it is pragmatic about what is possible today in Canada. “Some businesses may be ready to meet these minimalistic targets,” said Olivastri, “but none are going to do even this until regulations are put in place. It is appalling that Canada doesn’t have these rules in place.”
In Canada, regulations are a form of law with binding legal effect. The first steps in Canada’s regulatory process are developing a regulatory proposal for an enabling Act, review by the central agency and pre-publication.
Related articles
- Canada’s performance and positions in Durban (blog) (pembina.org)
- Canada pulls the plug on Kyoto (vancouverobserver.com)
- Fighting for “polluter pays principle” at Supreme Court (thegreenpages.ca)
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