Canada moves to develop clean fuel standard

Government ponders carbon’s effect on the changing climate

Insurance News

By Lyle Adriano

The Government of Canada announced last Friday that it has plans to create a clean fuel standard, with input from the public. The standard would call for carbon footprint reductions of the fuels currently used in the country, in the hopes of controlling greenhouse gas emissions that could exacerbate climate change.

In an impassioned speech, Environment and Climate Change Minster Catherine McKenna called attention to how climate change is causing “irreversible harm” and substantial financial damage to the world in her opening remarks.

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“Month by month, year by year, decade by decade, we see overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change and its world-altering impact,” McKenna said.  “And Canada is certainly not immune.”

According to McKenna, insurance claims in Canada related to severe weather events were around $373 million a year from 1983 to 2004— however, that amount has tripled to $1.2 billion a year in the past decade alone.

“We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate change. And we are the last generation that has the opportunity to stop it,” she asserted.

To do its part in combatting climate change, the government is looking to achieve a 30-megatonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. To accomplish this, the government proposed on Friday a nationwide carbon pricing scheme of $10 per tonne. It is anticipated that the provinces would implement the new scheme by 2018.

A clean fuel standard was also discussed during the meeting. McKenna said that the standard would encourage consumers to switch to cleaner forms of energy while complementing the government’s carbon pricing scheme.

Last Monday, the government separately announced that it would virtually eliminate the use of traditional coal-fired electricity by 2030, Reuters reported.

In stark contrast, Canada’s neighbor the United States is headed in the opposite direction. US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to ease the regulatory burden on all fossil fuel producers once he assumes his term. Trump also expressed interest at revitalizing the Keystone XL pipeline project that would allow crude oil to be pumped from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast.


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