Feature story - June 19, 2008
Greenpeace has issued a statement offering qualified support for the carbon tax plan that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has released. We welcomed the release of the Liberal carbon tax plan as a useful step towards reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
One coal-fired power station costs about $1.5 billion and emits seven million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
A properly designed carbon tax can be one of the most effective ways of reducing emissions because it can raise the price of carbon quickly and improve the environment more immediately. A carbon tax should also be paired with emissions trading and range of aggressive programs and policies.
Greenpeace considers a carbon tax an important part of the solution to global warming. The level of carbon tax proposed in the Liberal plan does not have a greenhouse gas reduction target that is tough enough. In addition, the price set for carbon is too low, and the tax cut identified in the plan should be used to help Canadians save energy.
The Liberal plan continues the leadership opposition parties have shown in Parliament on global warming, in contrast to the Harper government. The NDP got its bill on future reductions beyond Kyoto passed; the Liberals sponsored a bill supporting the Kyoto Protocol; and now Mr. Dion has released his climate change plan.
Greenpeace considers the Harper government's approach to global warming badly flawed because it doesn't set stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets with hard caps on emissions; doesn't put a price on carbon; and doesn't provide sufficient incentives for Canadians to reduce their emissions.
The Harper government plan (20 per cent reduction from 2006 levels by 2020) would leave Canada 133 million tonnes short of the targets set by Greenpeace, and other groups in the environmental movement, for our KYOTOplus campaign.
Under KYOTOplus, Greenpeace is calling for a minimum greenhouse gas reduction of 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. In April, Mr. Dion, alongside Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP leader Jack Layton, signed the KYOTOplus pledge which calls on politicians to support the campaign's reduction targets. Dion's plan calls for a 20 per cent reduction from 1990 level by 2020, or 25 per cent "if other countries take on comparable efforts."
KYOTOplus is a campaign to mobilize Canadians to get our governments to take real and strong action against global warming.