Canadian Plans Compete for Greenhouse-Gas Reductions

摘要

Two of Canada's largest provinces have signed an emission-reduction pact that's being marketed as more effective than the federal government's program to reduce emissions linked to global warming. The cap-and-trade deal, a component of the Ontario-Quebec Economic Partnership Agreement signed last month, aims to cut carbon emissions as early as 2010. The federal goal is to cut emissions from 2006 levels by 20% by 2020. The interprovincial deal, only an agreement in principle, omits the actual amount of reduction below the 1990 baseline, a reference in keeping with the Kyoto Protocol. Even though details are not yet hammered out, the two provinces are inviting other provinces to collaborate in implementing the plan. Ontario's 2005 climate-change plan aimed to reduce greenhouse gases to 6% below 1990 levels by 2014, or 61 mega-tonnes. The province now is moving ahead with its plan to shut down its four remaining coal-fired plants by 2014.