Gatineau — One year after the Kyoto Protocol entered into force as international law, the Pembina Institute has placed a full-page ad in this week's Hill Times to remind members of Parliament that Canada urgently needs to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change — and that doing so credibly involves regulating those emissions.
"The overwhelming scientific case for action and Canada's legal obligations under the Kyoto Protocol mean that climate change must be a priority for all parties in this Parliament," said Dr. Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute.
"To be credible, federal action on climate change has to include regulation of greenhouse gas emissions," added Dr. Matthew Bramley, the Institute's Director, Climate Change. "Twenty-five European countries and five U.S. states have already taken that step."
The Pembina Institute ad delivers three messages:
- The science demands urgent action . National science academies, including those of all the G8 countries, have called on governments to take "prompt action," pointing out that " failure to implement significant reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions now, will make the job much harder in the future."
- Canada has a legal obligation to take action now. Canada is legally obliged to begin meeting its Kyoto target for greenhouse gas emissions in less than two years, on January 1, 2008.
- Credible action includes regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the other gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. The ad points out that the United States Senate recently passed a resolution in favour of mandatory federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
CO2 and the other Kyoto gases were added to the list of substances that can be regulated under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in September 2005. When the recent election was called, Environment Canada was in the process of drafting regulations to limit emissions from the large industrial facilities that account for close to 50% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.
The 25 member states of the European Union have already implemented a system of regulated greenhouse gas emission targets, combined with emissions trading, for more than 11,000 industrial facilities. The states of Oregon, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Washington have enacted regulated targets-and-trading systems that limit CO2 emissions from electricity generation beginning in 1997, 2006-08, 2006 and 2004 respectively. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Vermont recently announced that they would do the same. California has enacted regulated limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, to take effect in 2009.
Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, and the protocol entered into force on February 16, 2005. Canada currently chairs United Nations negotiations on a new set of Kyoto targets to apply once the first set of targets expires at the end of 2012. Those negotiations will resume at a conference in Bonn in May 2006.
For more information contact:
Matthew Bramley, Director, Climate Change
819. 210. 6115 (cell.)
Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director
403. 607. 9427 (cell.)