Tax emissions or miss targets...

This is from the Star.
Since neither Harper nor even Dion are in favor of a carbon tax, we can only conclude that targets will be missed unless there is a big change of heart on the part of the Conservatives or Liberals. If the tax is so terrible for the economy how is that Quebec already has such a tax. I didn't think Quebec was interested in economic suicide. One problem with such a tax is that it will be passed on to consumers and will impact most negatively on those least able to pay the increased prices.

Tax emissions or miss targets, PM told

TOM HANSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Glen Murray, chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, answers reporters questions at a news conference on Jan. 7 in Ottawa to discuss the round table's report.

What exactly is a carbon tax?

It's a pollution tax that levies a fee on the production, distribution or use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. When burned, the carbon in these fuels turns into carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. Quebec implemented Canada's first carbon tax last year and collects almost one cent per litre of gasoline or diesel fuel sold in the province.
Carbon fee only way to meet climate-change targets, panel advises Ottawa

Jan 08, 2008 04:30 AM
Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa bureau chief

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper will have to accept carbon taxes or other charges on greenhouse gases if his government is to have any hope of meeting its climate-change targets.

That is the main message from a blue-ribbon panel on the environment asked by the federal Conservatives to assess their long-term strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The government wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 65 per cent by 2050.

Introducing a new charge on fossil fuels is the only way to ensure Canada succeeds in cutting its emissions, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy said in a report yesterday.

The new charge would mean Canadians would face higher costs to heat and light their homes and to pump gas into their cars, the panel says.

"As long as ... carbon can be emitted freely, it will be extremely challenging, to say the least, to achieve any significant reductions," said Glen Murray, the former Winnipeg mayor who chairs the panel.

"Market-based policies that put a price on carbon to send an economy-wide signal on emissions are the most effective way to achieve deep, long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions of the scale being considered," he told a news conference.

The arms-length agency, which is made up of industry and academic players as well as environmentalists, says the proposed measures would have a "relatively limited" impact on the economy.

Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion have ruled out a carbon tax as a possible solution to fighting climate change.

Quebec implemented Canada's first carbon tax last year. It collects just under one cent a litre of gasoline or diesel fuel sold in the province.

In its 77-page report, the national panel said the federal government must quickly introduce some form of tax if it hopes to meet its own goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 65 per cent by 2050.

"Our job is to push government, and not just the governing party, but Parliament and Canadians and industrial leaders and provinces into ... workable solutions," Murray said. "You need some sort of a price mechanism that's significant."

The report acknowledges there will be "pain" for Canadians as fossil fuels are slapped with a tax based on their carbon content. That could mean a 50 per cent increase in electricity costs, a 60 per cent jump in natural gas costs and a doubling of gas prices by 2050, the report predicts.

However, the panel also attempts to put those big numbers in context, noting that the price of gas jumped by 50 per cent at times during 2005 alone.

"These price effects are likely not outside the ongoing energy price swings we have experienced," the report says.

And the report also makes clear that it expects higher costs to pressure Canadians to do more to conserve energy, by retrofitting homes and switching to more fuel-efficient cars. As a result, the report says overall energy costs could fall by 15 per cent for the average household, despite the higher prices.

"More fuel efficient cars that use less use gas will cost consumers less. ... Isn't that a better way to run an economy by using less resources?" Murray said.

The report presents two options for levying a carbon charge – a so-called carbon tax that would impose a price on each unit of carbon dioxide emitted by a company, or a cap-and-trade system that would set a limit on the volume of greenhouse gas emission but allow companies to trade their quotas in the marketplace.

Either scenario or a combination of the measures has the "potential to achieve deep greenhouse gas emission reductions," said David McLaughlin, the panel's president and chief executive officer.

"The key is to put an economy-wide price on emissions," he said.

Environment Minister John Baird said the government would review the panel's recommendations, but rejected the suggestion of a carbon tax, saying "a new tax sounds like a Liberal idea to me."

Instead, he called the Tories' mandatory reductions for big polluters "the best way to go.

"We believe we can regulate reductions in greenhouse gases. We regulated lead out of gasoline. We think this is a similar approach," he told reporters on Parliament Hill yesterday.

The report won quick praise from environmentalists, who urged the federal Conservatives to act quickly on its recommendations.

"Whether it's capping carbon emissions or charging for them, the key is for government to start moving now," said Dale Marshall, climate-change policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation.

"If we wait too long, Canada will not meet its targets. Delay has many risks, including higher cumulative emissions, a steeper carbon price down the road and increased economic costs," he said in a statement.

The Sierra Club of Canada called it "tremendously significant" that the panel, with its "predominantly" business membership, concludes that a price on carbon emissions is essential for Canada to meet its emissions targets.

"Highly significant as well is the National Round Table's conclusion that the economic impacts of making the transition to a low-emission future will be minimal, and be lower the faster we act," Jean Langlois, Sierra Club's national campaigns director, said in a statement.

Federal Liberals called the strategy a "clarion call" for action and said it highlighted the shortcomings of the Tories' "halting and timid" efforts on climate change.

Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said Harper should discuss the report and its fallout when he meets with provincial premiers and territorial leaders Friday night in Ottawa.

The report notes that Alberta and Ontario – the two provinces with the biggest share of emissions – stand to get hit the hardest by any price controls. But Murray said the provinces have the most to gain from investments in new technology to help curb emissions.