The Manitoba government insists that its pledge to become the first jurisdiction in North America to legislate its Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gases won’t hurt farmers.
Provincial energy minister Jim Rondeau said agriculture in the province accounts for 30 percent of overall emissions, or seven megatonnes (MT) per year.
“We’re working with agriculture in a number of ways,” he said.
“We’ve been encouraging more organic farming, low till or zero till, riparian tax credits and making sure that people aren’t putting too much fertilizer on the land.”
Read Also
University of Manitoba hires potato researcher
A new research chair position at the University of Manitoba will tackle sustainability in the potato industry.
The new law would require Manitoba to meet its Kyoto commitment by 2012 and set long-term goals for further greenhouse gas reductions by 2020 and 2025.
To meet its Kyoto commitments, Manitoba must reduce its annual emissions to 17 from 20 MT. To get there, the first goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 2000 levels by 2010.
The province thinks it can pare that down by encouraging producers to switch to organic farming or minimum tillage practices.
Programs already in place to reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions include the riparian tax credit, which pays farmers to set aside farmland near wetlands, rivers and streams, and three pilot projects testing ways to capture methane from hog manure.
“We’re looking at ways to capture methane in livestock operations so we can utilize it and get some benefits out of it in an economic way,” Rondeau said.
Operations using coal will be hit with a new tax and offered incentives to switch to biomass heating systems.
Rondeau said a proposed federal initiative will encourage more solar panel installations. Manitoba Hydro already offers incentives for homeowners to install geothermal heating systems.
Rondeau said geothermal heating is increasingly popular in Manitoba. With only 3.5 percent of the country’s population, the province has 30 percent of Canada’s geothermal heating installations and 50 percent of its instructors and installers.
Two operations in the province are manufacturing heat pumps for export, with the Middle East and China the largest buyers.
The government is supporting its proposed legislation with more than $145 million worth of investments over four years.
As part of the strategy to meet Kyoto, the province is planning a coal-reduction strategy, including a tax on coal emissions, capital support for coal-reliant industries to convert to cleaner energy and support for developing biomass, a coal alternative.
Under this strategy, the government will close Manitoba Hydro’s coal-fired electricity plant in Brandon, except to support emergency operations.
Rondeau said more studies on capturing methane at large landfills are also planned.
The plan also includes greener cars and trucks, such as expanding the use of low-carbon fuel, developing a made-in-Manitoba clean vehicle standard, reducing the number of inefficient automobiles on the road and supporting new trucking technologies.
The strategy will also feature energy-efficiency initiatives and the further development of hydro, wind and geothermal.
Agriculture, forestry and community programs aimed at slashing the sector’s emissions by 680,000 tonnes will include a new sustainable agriculture program, the planting of five million trees over the next five years and new programs to help municipalities track emissions, conserve energy and water and reduce waste.
With oil topping $115 a barrel last week and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah recently quoted as saying some of the country’s oil “has been set aside for future generations,” a growing number of commentators are suggesting that the era of cheap energy is over.
“I don’t know what peak oil is,” Rondeau said.
“All I know is that as a commodity becomes more and more scarce, the price goes up. My job is to plan for any scenario, and that’s why we have ethanol and biodiesel.”
Canada is a significant net exporter of energy, he added, but under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which requires that exports of Canada’s petroleum production continue at current rates, Canada is just as exposed to the global price of oil as the United States, which imports 60 percent of its supply.
“I didn’t sign the deal,” he said.
“At a dollar a litre, ethanol and biodiesel become very economic. If the price goes up to $1.50, ethanol and biodiesel might actually bring the price of fuel down.”
