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OTTAWA, Ontario, CA, November 23, 2005
(Refocus Weekly)
Eighteen of the largest companies in Canada have
called on the federal government to set targets for green heat,
green power and green fuels.
“We believe strongly that the growing global demand for energy
services and the need to ensure sustainable development require a
continued focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing
energy services and ensuring economic growth,” says a letter to
prime minister Paul Martin that is signed by the chief executives of
Alcan, BC Hydro, Bombardier, Desjardins Group, Dupont, Falconbridge,
Shell and others. “We need a focus on energy supply and demand to
resolve climate change; we need all countries to play their part.”
“Where possible, we are adapting our business practices to reduce
GHG emissions and to minimize the adverse impact of climate change,”
it adds. “We believe that purchasing and producing renewable energy,
investing in low-carbon technologies, working to improve energy
efficiency and offering new products and services aimed at reducing
emissions, are meaningful strategies for the business community to
undertake.”
“To help us do more, we need policy certainty for post-2012,” it
explains. “We need a strategy now for the next 50 years, with short
and medium-term targets to guide us.”
“Governments must set clear markers along the way to unleash
competitive market forces and allow the discovery of a long-term
value for carbon emission reductions,” the letter continues. “Only
then will we secure the deep reductions needed to prevent human
interference with the climate system.”
Governments must strive for a climate regime that includes a
principle that is focussed on energy, including technology options,
which emphasizes municipalities as emerging players in achieving
long-term energy goals through a new distributed energy system.
“Greenhouse gas targets and commitments for post-2012 should include
energy supply and demand related milestones, including targets for
green power, green heat and advanced bio-fuels; CO2 capture,
transport and sequestration; and energy efficiency and
conservation.”
The letter, which one media source called a “seismic shift for the
business community” compared with its criticism of the Kyoto
Protocol when it was signed by former prime minister Jean Chretien.
The call for stronger action to fight climate change comes just days
before 10,000 delegates meet in Montreal for two weeks as the first
meeting since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in February after
it was ratified by 140 countries.
“As corporate leaders representing a broad cross-section of the
Canadian economy, we believe that all governments, corporations,
consumers and citizens have responsibilities under the Kyoto
Protocol and that the world must act urgently to stabilize the
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and minimize the
global impacts of climate change,” says the group which calls itself
the Executive Forum on Climate Change. “Our organizations accept
that a strong response is required to the strengthening evidence in
the scientific assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change.”
The Forum was created following a meeting in October, when prime
minister Martin asked the business community to provide his
government with advice on how to move forward in the international
climate negotiations.
The federal and provincial governments must send a “clear political
signal” that the CDM and JI mechanisms under Kyoto “will be made to
function effectively” and to develop a long-term energy strategy
that positions Canada at the vanguard of new transformative energy
technology. “On an urgent basis, target strategic investments and
incentives in world-class carbon dioxide capture, transport and
storage and low-impact renewable energy, including green power,
green heat and bio-refineries and advanced bio-fuels,” it adds.
It wants objectives to be set which will meet “global best practice
for energy production and consumption through regulated standards,
procurement, financial and tax incentives and market-based
approaches like emissions trading and trading of energy efficiency
credits,” and to align corporate procurement policies with these
objectives. “Properly designed programs and incentives will unleash
the power of the market to accelerate deployment of low carbon
technologies and adaptation to climate extremes, engaging both
producers and consumers.”
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