While Canada’s climate target is achievable, the PBO report reminds us that existing policies won’t be enough. “Deeper reductions will be needed,” it says.
In the midst of charges and counter charges by Green Party leader Elizabeth May and prime minister Justin Trudeau regarding the role of climate change in the disastrous Fort MacMurray fire, there is a relatively good news message in the report of the Parliamentary Budget Officer on climate change: there’s not a huge cost to the economy in meeting Canada’s climate change targets, and much of the needed slashing at greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved with existing technology or technology currently under development, and at a price of less than $100 a tonne for carbon.
The report made some headlines because it noted that the 30 per cent target meant removing more than the equivalent of all emissions from today’s cars and trucks, including off-road vehicles. What’s more interesting is that by 2025, the average fuel efficiency of vehicles has to be double what it is today, so that we will drive much further on a litre of gasoline or on the battery charge in our electric vehicle (and there will be many more of those).