Quebec pledges $2.7 billion to tackle climate change

ORIGINAL: Edmonton Journal

BY MONIQUE BEAUDIN, 

THE GAZETTE JUNE 3, 2012

MONTREAL - Quebec plans to spend $2.7 billion to tackle climate change by 2020.

In the new 2013-20 climate-change action plan, made public in Montreal on Sunday by Premier Jean Charest, Quebec will act on a variety of fronts to meet its goal of bringing greenhouse-gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

In 2009, Quebec’s greenhouse-gas emissions were 2.5 per cent below 1990 levels. In order to reach its 2020 goal, Quebec estimates it would have to cut emissions by 11.7 megatonnes by 2020. The plan announced Sunday, the first part of a two-phase plan, would cut about 6.1 megatonnes, the government said. The second phase of the plan will be announced between now and 2020.

Quebec plans to spend two-thirds of the money on transportation measures, such as improving public transit, carpooling, taxi-sharing and active transportation like walking and cycling.

The transportation sector creates nearly half of Quebec’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

Quebec plans to spend about $200 million helping companies improve their carbon footprint and energy efficiency, and another

$100 million on research into reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, developing climate-monitoring networks and adapting to climate change.

The government also will spend $94 million helping municipalities and communities cut greenhouse-gas emissions, adapt to climate change and practise sustainable land-use planning.

New funding for municipal climate programs will allow cities like Montreal to tackle the problems of heat-island effect and stormwater run-off, said Montreal executive-committee vice-chairman Alan DeSousa, who is in charge of sustainable development for the city.

Other measures announced Sunday include adopting new energy-efficiency standards for home appliances, encouraging the use of hybrid trucks and supporting the development of environmentally friendly neighbourhoods.

Funding for the plan will come from revenues from a new carbon market, the government said.

Municipalities welcomed the government’s announcement that it would invest in municipal climate programs, while the Société de Transport de Montréal said the plan confirms the importance of public transit in the fight against climate change.

But environmental groups said the government could have done much more.

While certain aspects of the plan are “interesting,” the government should be reducing its investments in new highways and road projects, said the groups Équiterre and the David Suzuki Foundation. The only way to reach the 2020 goal is for the province to make a major shift to public transit, the groups said.

The Federation of Quebec Municipalities, while welcoming the new funding for municipal climate programs, said it would have liked Quebec to invest in creating a market for the compost and biofuels created from organic waste, and to help smaller municipalities provide home composting bins to their residents to reduce the amount of garbage going to landfills, where decomposing organic waste produces methane gas, a greenhouse gas.

mbeaudin@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @moniquebeaudin

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