BRIAN LAGHIOTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF; Compiled by Rick Cash; Shawn McCarthy, Global Energy ReporterMarch 10, 2008
Canada has set a target of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by the year 2020. It aims to cut emissions by 60-70 per cent by mid-century.
Mr. Baird will also elaborate this week on a previously announced industry-wide requirement that forces companies to reduce carbon emissions by 18 per cent by 2010 for every unit of production. They would then have to reduce emissions by 2 per cent for every year thereafter until 2020, although the regime would be reviewed in 2012.
Some critics have panned the 18-per-cent reduction idea because it does not require firms to cut overall output.
For example, an oil sands plant will be forced to cut greenhouse-gas production per barrel of oil, but it will still be allowed to increase the number of barrels of oil it puts out.
But Mr. Baird said that no sector in the economy, save for the oil sands, would grow by more than 18 per cent over the next two years.
He estimated that the cost to industries to implement new measures to reach their targets will be $25 per tonne of carbon dioxide by 2010, rising to $50 by 2016 and to $65 by 2020.
Companies that fail to meet their targets would face prosecution under the Criminal Code.
In the case of oil sands and coal plants, this week's announcement would force plants that have yet to hit the drawing board to store their emissions rather than allowing them to escape and increase the amount of gases tagged as the cause of global warming.
By contrast, oil sands firms that have been in operation since before 2004 would be subject to the 18-per-cent reduction regime, while more stringent targets would be applied on firms that have been established since 2004 and on plants that are in the construction process.
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