Alberta’s leading energy companies and other industries can expect increased growth, greater innovation and enhanced global competitiveness if Canada ratifies the Kyoto accord on climate change, a new report by environmental groups says.
But Alberta Environment Minister Lorne Taylor continues to argue that the economic risks to the province are too high to ratify the treaty, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warning.
The Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 100 environmental groups in the country, released a report in Calgary last week that examined Kyoto ratification and the expected outcome for Canadian industry competitiveness.
The document was prepared in response to “some of the fear-mongering and disinformation that’s emanating from industry groups and with some provincial governments,” said coalition director John Bennett of the Sierra Club.
To meet its target under Kyoto, Canada would have to make a 26-per-cent cut – 240 million tonnes – in carbon dioxide and other industrial greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.
Industry groups that include the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Alberta government, warn that signing the treaty and forcing that large an emission cut could cost the Canadian economy up to $40 billion and 450,000 lost jobs in the manufacturing sector alone.
But the environmental coalition’s report shows “that industry has totally misinterpreted what is likely to happen, and that in fact Canada will become more competitive by reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Bennett said.
The Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental policy research group, prepared the 44-page report. It looked at past and current experiences with other national and international initiatives that have legally binding environmental targets.
They included the acid rain-control program in the U.S., the Montreal Protocol to prevent industrial gases destroying the ozone layer, and a continuing initiative by Canada’s oil refiners to reduce the level of polluting sulphur in gasoline.
“In all of these cases, there was predicted doom and gloom,” said Marlo Reynolds, director of Pembina’s Corporate Eco-Solutions program and one of three authors of the report.
“And in all of these cases, innovation was stimulated, the market responded and the targets were met without any hardship.”
For example, the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute says the country’s largest refiners will spend $1.8 billion to meet new federal rules requiring sulphur in gasoline to be reduced to 30 parts per million from about 260 ppm.
Most companies will achieve the reduction target at least one year ahead of the 2004 deadline, the industry institute said. It expects the refiners’ investments will add about one cent per litre to the cost of regular unleaded gasoline.
But provincial Environment Minister Taylor, who appeared at a national consultation session in Calgary to argue for a made-in-Alberta plan as opposed to Kyoto, was having none of the environmentalists’ report.
Taylor said the most current figures he has seen from federal officials suggest that ratifying Kyoto could cost the Canadian economy $13 billion and 180,000 jobs by 2012.
Whether that estimate is correct or not, “there’s a huge range of risk, and this range of risk is too large to ratify” the accord this year, Taylor said.
Alberta’s emissions-reduction plan, on the other hand, means the economy will continue to grow, he said.
“We have a ‘share-the-gain,’ not a ‘share-the-pain’ plan.”
Alberta’s plan would cut in half the amount of greenhouse gases generated per million dollars of the province’s economy by 2020, rather than reduce total emissions as required under Kyoto.
The province would still achieve emission reductions equal to Kyoto by then, Taylor maintains. The plan so far doesn’t include any cost figures, new funding or tax incentives to support development of technologies to reduce emissions.
But Taylor noted that the province took the first step last week by providing $250,000 in initial funding to Calgary-based Climate Change Central, to establish a new provincial office of energy efficiency. The office will be a “one-stop shop” for individuals, communities and organizations on how to better conserve and use energy.
Climate Change Central is a provincially funded, private-public partnership that co-ordinates activities to reduce greenhouse gases in Alberta. The province intends to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on research and new technologies aimed at reducing emissions, Taylor said.
“As we go forward even in this year, I think you’re going to see more (funding) commitments.” But environmentalist Bennett charged that the Alberta government’s plan “is basically a dishonest presentation.”
The only way the province’s plan could achieve a Kyoto-level reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 would be to not count emissions produced in exporting oil, gas and coal to other provinces and the U.S., Bennett said.
“Alberta’s plan is actually to increase (total emissions) by 20 to 30 per cent.”
Reynolds said that Pembina’s report shows Alberta companies – including several in the energy sector – are already among the country’s leaders in reducing greenhouse gases and making progress toward a Kyoto-level target.
BP has already surpassed the Kyoto target in cutting its own emissions. Shell Canada, Suncor and other energy companies are also well on the way by investing in renewable energy such as wind-generated power, Reynolds said.
Other Alberta companies are pioneering clean and renewable energy systems that will give the province a competitive edge in a global economy where greenhouse gases will become a liability, he noted.
He pointed to fuel-cell maker Global Thermoelectric, combined heat-and-power developer Mariah Energy, wind energy/small-hydro builder Canadian Hydro Developers, and wind energy firm Vision Quest Windelectric.
By ratifying Kyoto, he added, “we’ll see increased energy efficiency, a more efficient economy and new technologies for domestic and international markets.”
The Pembina report also found that the stocks of independently audited “socially and environmentally responsible” mutual funds consistently do better than other indices.
“It is clear that companies leading on climate change and sustainability regularly outperform companies not taking a leadership position on environmental issues,” Reynolds said.
Click here to e-mail Mark Lowey
