The new federal climate strategy, according to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, will not be completed until the end of March.
The government must publish a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction plan for 2030 within six months under the net-zero accountability law, which was passed in June.
However, Guilbeault claims that the government would take advantage of a clause that allows it to postpone the decision for another three months.
On or before March 29, 2022, the proposal will be made public.
Guilbeault says the delay is necessary to allow Indigenous Peoples, provinces and other interested parties to weigh in on what the plan should contain.
The net-zero bill was passed two months after the Liberals increased their 2030 target for emissions cuts to 40 to 45 below 2005 levels. The old target was a 30 per cent cut.
The new goal would mean Canada needs to be somewhere between 444 million tonnes and 480 million tonnes in 2030. The most recent inventory report set Canada’s 2019 emissions at 729 million tonnes.
While some analysts say the combination of new climate policies promised by the Liberals in the last year could meet those targets, the existing federal climate plans were all produced before the new targets were set.
The net-zero bill enshrined into law the longer-term goal of hitting net zero emissions by 2050, when any emissions still produced must be captured by nature or technology. It also requires interim plans and five-year targets to be set and reported on publicly.
Guilbeault is also launching specific consultations on four pillars of the government’s environment platform in the recent election, including net-zero emissions cars, a net-zero emissions electricity grid, capping emissions from the oil and gas industry and cutting methane emissions.
Guilbeault has already sought opinion from the government’s net-zero advisory group on the oil and gas emissions cap, but he is now widening those discussions to include provincial and territorial governments as well as other experts.
He stated, “The debate over whether we need to intervene is long passed.” “Now we have to figure out how to get to where we need to go as a group.”
Source_ The Canadian Press
