This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 06 Jul 2008, by Epopteia ....
-
06 Jul 08
-
Alberta Environment released a study last week by Mark Jaccard & Associates on the province’s climate change strategy.
-
The strategy proposes to cut Alberta’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 200 megatonnes by 2050,
-
The province charges companies $15 a tonne if they can’t meet their reduction targets, the idea being the charge would encourage industry to invest in technologies like CCS
-
The study found this charge would have "very little effect on emissions" by 2050 because it was so low and would leave the province about 195 megatonnes short of its goal. The fee would have to jump to at least $50 to $75 a tonne before substantial investment in CCS occurred, it found.
-
Fifteen dollars a tonne was far too low to get CCS happening, agreed Clare Demerse, climate change analyst with the Pembina Institute.
-
The province agrees, says Andy Ridge, head of the climate change policy unit at Alberta Environment, and knew that before it commissioned the Jaccard study. "The modelling reaffirms that we need to go well beyond $15 a tonne."
-
Carbon-capture would be a key reduction action in any policy as the majority of the province’s future growth in emissions comes from industry, particularly the oil industry.
-
Emissions were predicted to rise by 80 per cent by 2050,
-
One policy would require all large industrial facilities built after 2015 to use carbon-capture, cutting emissions by 173 megatonnes. The other adds in a carbon tax that starts at $15 a tonne and rises to $100 by 2046, resulting in reductions of more than 200 megatonnes.
-
Carbon-capture will be a key part of Alberta’s climate change plan, said Rick Hyndman, spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
-
and there’s only two places where you can do it on a large scale: coal-fired power plants and the oilsands.
-
The province is still discussing how to get large-scale CCS projects moving in Alberta, Ridge said, with a development committee scheduled to report on the subject this fall.
-
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.