[greenon-l] Dion's Half Plan onf Climate

[Conservation Council of Ontario]

Ontario’s Conservation Movement

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Dion’s Half Plan on Climate


I read over Stéphane Dion’s climate change plan over the weekend. It’s a
great half plan.

The plan will place a cap on emissions by sector, and will impose a carbon
tax on companies that exceed the cap. The initial charge will be $20 per
tonne for emissions in excess of the initial target of 6% below 1990 levels.
The penalties will increase over time and the targets lowered to 20% below
1990 in 2020, 35% below 1990 in 2035, and 60 to 80% below 1990 in 2050.

Each major company will have a carbon budget, and will pay into an
arms-length Green Investment Account when it exceeds its budget. Companies
have two years to access their GIA contributions to finance carbon-reducing
projects, after which the funds can be used to finance other projects.

Details on the plan are at the Liberal Party website
http://www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?id=12570. 

Why is this only half a plan? It is focused entirely on major emitters in
three sectors: electricity generation, upstream oil and gas, and energy
intensive industries.  This is a supply-side strategy, not a demand-side
strategy. It targets corporations, not consumers. To be effective, a climate
change strategy has to work both sides. To overlook the power of
conservation as a driver of economic change is a major omission.

Let’s take transporation as an example. Transportation (about
<http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/Indicators/Issues/Climate/Tech_Sup/ccs
up03_e.cfm> 30% of Canada’s CO2 emissions) is not specifically targeted in
the Dion plan, nor is urban sprawl, a major contributing factor to personal
transportation habits. The automotive sector is energy-intensive and their
production facilities would likely be covered under the Liberal plan, but
would the fuel efficiency of the cars they produce be covered? The North
American auto industry is already facing pressure from consumers to produce
more energy-efficient cars. A stronger gas guzzler tax and incentive program
to promote fuel-efficiency would have a major impact on the design of cars
and reward people who choose to conserve.

I can point to a full range of consumer-oriented tax shifting programs that
are revenue neutral and would reward individuals for being climate change
leaders. They offer a consumer-based equivalent to the Green Investment
Account — carbon taxes to finance incentives for vehicle efficiency, public
transit, compact urban design, home energy efficiency, and renewable power.
The beauty of this approach is that it will sunset once the transition to a
conserver economy is complete.

If Stéphane Dion’s plan is based on the “polluter-pays principle”, then the
approach I’m suggesting could be called the “pigs-pay principle”.

Climate change is as much an issue of over-consumption as it is one of
over-pollution. It’s time we take a much more aggressive position on
rewarding conservers. 

Chris Winter
 <http://www.weconserve.ca/> weconserve.ca
Ontario's Conservation Movement

 

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