June 16, 2016 – By Pembina Institute – The Pembina Institute welcomes the opportunity to share with the Government of Canada its views on a credible approach to tackling climate change for the country.

Below, we provide details on an overall carbon pricing approach and specific recommendations for key sectors in the Canadian emissions inventory, including transportation, buildings, electricity, oil and gas, and government decision-making.

More recently, research demonstrates that Canada’s emissions gap in 2030 is slightly smaller than official government estimates.11 After September 2015, a significant number of new climate policies were announced that were not taken into account in the biennial report.

These policies include Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, Ontario’s cap-and-trade regulation, Saskatchewan’s 50 per cent commitment for installed renewable energy capacity, and the Canada-U.S. joint commitment to regulate new and existing sources of methane emissions in their oil and gas sectors.

Accordingly, based  on the modeler’s expert judgment, these policies could reduce emissions to 709 Mt in 2030, leaving a gap of 185 Mt in 2030.13.

While these estimates provide a more up-todate assessment on the efficacy of existing and developing climate policies across
Canada, the point remains: even with all national and sub-national climate efforts to date, Canada must bring in new ambitious new policies and/or significantly increase the stringency of existing programs, to close the gap to 2030.

Summary of policy recommendations

1. Develop and implement a national price on carbon
2. Accelerate the phase-out of coal-fired electricity
3. Support deployment of renewables in Northern and remote communities
4. Accelerate the expansion of low-carbon transportation options
5. Transform Canada’s existing buildings and require new buildings to be ultralow carbon
6. Implement national methane reduction regulations for the oil and gas sector
7. Align government decision making with climate science

Download the report here