Canada | Environment Change
Canada plans to change carbon-pricing benchmark, submits new greenhouse gas targets to UN
Ottawa/IBNS: Canada's formal commitment, formally known as the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 was officially submitted to the United Nations(UN) on Monday.
Canada's submission confirming a target was first announced in April when Canadian officials participated in an international climate summit convened by the United States meaning curtailing country's total emissions to between 401 and 438 megatonnes by 2030.
Although according to the recently enacted Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson has six months to present a plan to meet the new target, he has already conveyed his plans to amend the federal carbon-pricing benchmark to his provincial counterparts to eliminate the discrepancies of provinces' implementing their own policies over the last few years.
"As we discussed, and as our respective officials have discussed over the past several months, Canada has committed to updating its approach to carbon pricing to make it more fair and rigorous," Wilkinson said in the letter sent to provincial ministers on Monday.
In an interview, Wilkinson said the federal government is willing to work collaboratively with the provinces but he doesn't expect support for the changes to be unanimous, CBC News reported.
When current and recently announced policies are taken into account, says the Liberal government, emissions are on track for a decline of 36 percent below the 2005 level to falling to 468 Mt by 2030.
A Federal government-commissioned recent report from the Institute for Climate Choices said that design choices and exemptions at the provincial level have led to differences in coverage and price across the country.
The report's authors added that federal, provincial, and territorial ministers should work together towards developing a common standard of emissions coverage for carbon pricing including point-of-sale rebates to make efficient emissions reductions.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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