Canada will have to use all the tools at its disposal to achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Considering that we didn’t meet our Kyoto targets, it’s clear that targets alone are not enough. Concrete plans are needed.
So it’s unsettling to see Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall lead the charge against federal efforts to enact a carbon tax.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s initiative with the provinces could lead to such a tax.
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Agriculture has a role to play. The sector accounted for 12 percent of global emissions in 2012.
But Canada’s agriculture sector has been a leader, with efforts such as zero-tillage and precision farming technology. As a result, the rate at which carbon is stored in agricultural soil is already higher than projections for 2030.
It’s important that a decision to impose a carbon tax, or any other initiatives, take into consideration efforts already underway in agriculture, which have made Canadian farms among the most efficient in the world.
And it must be acknowledged that farmers aren’t able to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels and fertilizer — the key contributors to greenhouse gases in agriculture. Methane emitted from livestock is also a contributor to global warming.
These could be subject to a carbon tax, should such a plan be put in place.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that 80 percent of the country lives under some sort of sort of carbon pricing initiative. The federal government is setting up four panels to prepare a co-ordinated approach to greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon tax in the area of $15 per tonne is possible. That’s considered the low end of pricing.
A carbon tax is intended as motivation to curb emissions and as a revenue generator to put money into green initiatives. Wall argues that now is not the time for a carbon tax due to poor economic conditions.
Yet how can we accept the realities of global warming and say we cannot use a key tool to address it? If not now, scientists tell us, it will be too late.
Wall argues that a carbon tax could sap $1.3 billion from Saskatchewan’s economy. Yet a peer-reviewed study found that B.C.’s carbon tax revenues may have allowed the province to cut income taxes, putting money back into the economy. B.C. has had a carbon price of $30 per tonne for several years — though there are exceptions on fuel for farmers.
Wall is worried about the effect on oil companies, but Alberta, which has the most at stake due to its struggling oil sector, plans to bring in a carbon tax of its own by 2017. Ontario and Quebec have opted for cap-and-trade systems.
The federal initiative aims to pull the patchwork of provincial programs together for a national effort.
What is needed is a broad initiative that is nuanced enough to focus on where it can most effectively reduce emissions.
Federal efforts must make allowances for agriculture’s realities and account for measures the sector has already taken, including investments in the latest seeding and fertilizing technologies. It must also allow for incremental change and ensure that farmers will not be forced to absorb the brunt of the extra costs.
