CALGARY, Alberta, June 23 (Reuters) – Canada is facing a 2030 target of reducing carbon emissions by 40-45% below 2005 levels due to the momentum and changes needed to revive the economy, the country’s independent budget watchdog said on Wednesday. Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux assessment highlights the difficulties facing Canada, one of the world’s fourth-largest oil producers, as it seeks to reduce emissions within a decade.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tough emissions target of 40-45% in April, but there is no word on how the government plans to reach that goal. Prior to unveiling the beef target, Canada announced policies to reduce emissions by 36% by 2030. Canada’s highest polluting sector is transportation and the Oil and Gas and PBO report states that “extraordinary measures” are needed to achieve the 40-45% decarbonization target and to widely deploy the necessary technologies for oil and sand, such as electric vehicles and small-module nuclear reactors.
“While these reduction technologies are available, the scale and speed of change will make it challenging to achieve them,” the report said. The PBO report assesses the impact of federal policies on setting a 36% cut target by 2030, including carbon tariffs of C1 1 per tonne and other “non-cost” policies such as building retrofits and transportation subsidies.
It found that the combined measures would cost the equivalent of 21 211 per tonne of carbon tariffs and reduce Canada’s real GDP by 1.4% by 2030, although the report emphasized that climate change would have its own potential costs and unexpected groundbreaking technologies could reduce economic impact. “Our assessment shows that the biggest economic impact of the emission reduction will fall on the transportation and oil and gas sectors,” Giroux said in a press release. It found that the combined measures would cost the equivalent of 21 211 per tonne of carbon tariffs and reduce Canada’s real GDP by 1.4% by 2030, although the report emphasized that climate change would have its own potential costs and unexpected groundbreaking technologies could reduce economic impact.
“Our assessment shows that the biggest economic impact of the emission reduction will fall on the transportation and oil and gas sectors,” Giroux said in a press release.
