Laura Zizzo to appear on Green Screens panel May 5th
April 28, 2010
GREEN SCREENS presents THE ARCTIC CIRCLE: ON THIN ICE Wednesday, May 5 at 7 PM at the NFB Cinema FREE
Climate change is hitting the Arctic harder and faster than any other region on Earth. In On Thin Ice, we meet international teams of scientists who are chronicling the effects of climate change on the land and its animal inhabitants. We see huge ice shelves crumbling into the sea, polar bears struggling to survive and torrents of water flowing where there should be only ice.
Join us after the screening for a panel discussion with Dr. Peter J. Ewins, Senior Officer, Species Conservation, WWF-Canada; Quentin Chiotti, Science Advisor, Pollution Probe; and Laura Zizzo, Climate Change and Environmental Lawyer, Zizzo Allan Climate Law LLP.
GREEN SCREENS partners films from the National Film Board with experts and panellists hosted by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP). If you are interested in the environment, GREEN SCREENS will both entertain and inform you.
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Personal Vehicles and GHGs – Driving Down Carbon in Ontario
April 9, 2010
The Pembina Institute has just published an interesting report on GHG emissions from personal vehicle use in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe (an area that covers about 70% of Ontario’s population and includes the cities of Toronto, Barrie, Mississauga and Markham). The report, Driving Down Carbon: Reducing GHG Emissions from the Personal Transportation Sector in Ontario looks at current emissions from personal vehicles and provides estimates for how effective the government of Ontario’s key personal transportation policies are likely to be in reducing GHG emission in the future.
The report’s authors Cherise Burda, Alison Bailie and Graham Haines conclude that, while Ontario’ current policies are definitely headed in the right direction, more action is needed to encourage and help Ontarians to reduce their vehicular travel.
Some key points from the report:
- Transportation is the largest and fastest growing source of GHGs in Ontario (and it accounts for almost 1/3 of the province’s emissions)
- Ontario’s proposed policies to reduce emissions from personal vehicular transportation, such as those contained in the Places to Grow Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Metrolinx’s The Big Move program, will make an important dent in GHG emissions, but they aren’t enough to reduce Ontario’s GHG emissions from personal transportation because of predicted increased population growth in Ontario
- A mix of policy improvements is required to encourage an efficient and meaningful reduction in GHG emissions from this sector including reducing sprawl, increasing vehicle efficiency and increasing funding for transit
- Ontario should consider the use of innovative policies that will encourage people to make better transportation decisions including road-pricing strategies to reduce congestion, incentives that encourage transit use, safer streets for biking and walking, HOV lanes on all 400 series highways and pay-as-you drive auto insurance policies
This report provides a lot of information that will help municipalities, the provincial and federal government and private citizens recognize the importance of transportation in addressing climate change, and it provides some great guidance on where we need to target our resources; it’s well worth a read.
Federal Government Announce Harmonization with US EPA Vehicle GHG Efficiency Standards
April 1, 2010
Minister Prentice today announced the proposed Passenger Automobile and Light Truck Greenhouse Gas Emission Regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, a move that will set to harmonize mandatory national emissions standards for cars and light trucks with the U.S. standards by 2011. The U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a similar announcement today.
The government projects that the average GHG emission performance of new vehicles of the 2016 model year will be about 25% lower than the vehicles sold in Canada in 2008.
As Cherise Burda, Director of Sustainable Transportation for the Pembina Institute notes: “These regulations help to get Canada on track to reduce its transportation emissions. But with Canada’s fleet of vehicles already more efficient than the U.S., these regulations are unlikely to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Canada before 2012. And this announcement does not apply to freight trucks – a significant omission when freight emissions have nearly doubled since 1990.” The Pembina institute also notes that although Canada is matching the US with respect to fuel efficiency standards, it has not provided the same level of support for public transit and vehicle efficiency, saying “President Obama asked for nearly $13 billion in new sustainable transportation spending, while our analysis of the 2010 budget in Canada found zero new sustainable transportation spending.”
Never the less, the announcement means stricter standards in the long run and the start of a formal consultation process that will see the regulations in force by the 2011 model year.
The government has been informally consulting with stakeholders since December of last year. The proposed regulations were posted online today and will be published in the Canada Gazette on April 17, 2010. Following the formal consultations, final regulations are expected to be published in the summer of 2010 and will come into effect for the 2011 model year.
Credit trading systems and offsets used to provide compliance flexibility
The proposed regulations allow companies that are subject to the fleet average GHG emissions standards to “offset” the requirements by purchasing credits from the Receiver General at a rate of $20 per Mg of CO2eq to offset a deficit incurred for the 2011 model year. From the 2012 model year forward, a company’s unique fleet average standard would be determined based on the size (footprint) and number of vehicles it sells in a given model year. The standards are to become more stringent each year. The regulations would establish separate limits for relevant GHGs, such as nitrous oxide and methane.
The proposed regulations would grant credits to companies that performed better than the applicable fleet average for a given model year, these credits could be traded between companies. Credits would be good for five model years and emissions deficits would have to be offset with an equivalent number of emission credits within the subsequent three model years.
The proposal also provides additional compliance flexibilities such as credit for selling advanced technology vehicles (i.e. electric or plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles) and provides for credit for early actions.
US EPA announcement
The US Department of Transportation and the US EPA today jointly established new rules that set the first-ever national greenhouse gas emissions standards and will increase fuel economy of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. The rules establish fuel economy standards under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy program and GHG emission standards under the Clean Air Act for 2012 through 2016 model-year vehicles.
The U.S. will require 2016 model-year vehicles to meet a fuel efficiency target of 35.5 miles per gallon, combined for cars and trucks. This is an increase of almost 10 miles per gallon over current standards. More information on the US announcement can be found in the EPA’s press release.
As CBC news reported, President Obama said the plan marked a reversal “after decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency”. He also noted that the plan would reduce dependence on oil and ultimately save Americans money at the pump.
EPA gets the Nod from California
Governor Schwarzenegger has also committed to agreeing to also implement harmonized rules, a move that some environmentalists may see as an easing up of standards in California. In a letter to US EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the California governor committed to revised standards on GHG emissions in line with the more stringent EPA requirement.
More information on these announcements can be found in the Environment Canada Press Release. Please contact Laura Zizzo for more information.
The end of the ecoEnergy retrofit program
April 1, 2010
In a moved that shocked some in the industry – the federal government announced the end to the popular ecoEnergy retrofit program.
For more information see the new release from Green Saver and the Globe and Mail article.
More to come…
