Guilbeault delays publication of climate plan targets until spring

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the new federal climate plan won’t be ready until the end of March.

The net zero liability law passed in June requires the government to release a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan by 2030 within six months.

But Guilbeault says the government will take advantage of a clause that allows it to delay that for another three months.

The plan will now be released on or before March 29, 2022.

Guilbeault says the delay is necessary to allow indigenous peoples, provinces and other stakeholders to have a say in what the plan should contain.

The net zero bill was passed two months after Liberals raised their 2030 emissions cut target from 40 to 45 below 2005 levels. The previous target was a 30 percent cut.

The new target would mean that Canada should be between 444 million tons and 480 million tons by 2030. The most recent inventory report put Canada’s emissions in 2019 at 729 million tons.

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While some analysts say the combination of new climate policies promised by liberals in the past year could meet those goals, all of the existing federal climate plans came before the new goals were set.

The net-zero bill enshrined the long-term goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, when emissions that still occur must be captured by nature or technology. It also requires that interim plans and five-year targets be established and publicly reported.

Guilbeault is also launching specific consultations on four pillars of the government’s environmental platform in recent elections, including net zero-emission cars, a zero-emission power grid, limiting emissions from the oil and gas industry, and reducing emissions. methane.

Guilbeault has already requested information on the oil and gas emissions cap from the government’s net zero advisory body, but is expanding those consultations to include provincial and territorial governments and other experts.

“The debate on whether we should act a long time ago,” he said. “Now we must determine how we can get together where we need to go.”

This Canadian Press report was first published on December 3, 2021.