Quebec is in the process of taking a bold step towards North America’s first Cap and Trade system.  Bill 42, tabled recentlyis designed to bring in a mandatory Cap and Trade system to Quebec, in line with the WCI, of which Quebec is a key member along with Ontario and British Columbia and California among others. The bill aims to be passed by fall of this year ready to come into action for 2012. The Globe and Mail has the details:

“The first emission caps will be issued between 2012 and 2015, targeting only electricity-producing companies and major industries that emit more than 25,000 tonnes a year of greenhouse gases. After 2015, the second phase will target, among other sectors, transportation as well as home and commercial heating companies.”

As with all Cap and Trade systems, companies that can make reductions will be the beneficiaries as they sell their Carbon Credits to larger polluters.  In effect putting a price on pollutions and benefitting those within an industry who can undercut the industry average, profiting from their competitors failures. As the number of credits is contracted over time, companies have the choice of bearing the cost, keeping up with the contraction or best of all, aiming to beat the contraction and gain financial advantage by reducing carbon emissions so as to be able to sell their carbon credits. Part of the beauty of Cap and Trade is that  the internal competition between similar industries, in the electricity sector this is most evident, where cap and trade will directly feed down to customers, the designers hope that consumers will favour the cheaper which will in theory become synonymous with lower emitting companies.

Quebec’s move is not just symptomatic of state level leadership in Climate Change but also of what direction Climate Change policy in North America may be taking. Although Quebec has a carbon tax

“Quebec became the first province to create a carbon tax, collecting just under one cent per litre of fuel products from petroleum companies; the aim is to raise about 0 million a year to pay for energy-saving initiatives”

Cap and Trade through the WCI appears be gaining momentum as the favoured form, despite British Columbia’s recent election where the pro-Carbon tax incumbents stayed on. The reasons are numerous but the fundamental issues appears to be the reluctance of politicians to impose anything that would directly tax citizens from the state ( or even has the word in it), Cap and Trade will raise prices for consumers, particularly in electricity, consumers will in theory be able to choose.

The collective approach of the WCI, containing big names such as California, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia to name a few means that throughout North America, some of the biggest regional economies will be committing to a Cap and Trade system. As far as Canada is concerned AHN news notes this will make up: “80 percent of the nation’s headcount and 75 percent of Canada’s local economy”. The figure is critical on two counts. WCI leaders have been able to show that leadership on Climate Change is possible even in the midst of a recession. Furthermore, strong leadership has kept Climate Change policy in the public domain the in the middle of a global recession.

Where does this leave the Federal Government?

Speaking to the Globe and mail, Quebec’s Environment Minister Line Beauchamp had this to say:

“We hope Quebec’s participation in this common market with Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia will incite the federal government to co-operate with the provinces to develop a Canadian carbon market compatible with what is taking place elsewhere in the world,”

Jim Prentice, Canadian Environment Minister added his own thoughts:

“I think it is typical of the kinds of efforts that we are making with all of the provinces to harmonize…,” Mr. Prentice said. “And we’ll need to determine the extent to which it’s consistent with what’s been proposed continentally with the United States and also internationally.”

Prentice’s line is symptomatic of the Canadian Government, that of a follower not a leader in Climate Change, despite Harper favouring “intensity based reduction” it appears the clock may be running down as absolute systems as envisaged in Cap and Trade, crop up across North America, partly through the WCI but also through a US federal cap and trade as envisioned in Congressman Waxman’s bill currently trying  to get through congress.  What may prove harder for Harper is the manner in which Climate Change legislation has managed to stay in the limelight in some of Canada’s largest states, indicating that Canadians may be difficult to avoid it in upcoming elections and that many Canadians may not accept Canada as simply a follower when their own states have proven that leadership is possible.

It rarely receives the same attention as the Amazon rain forest, one is being devastated by illegal

Deforestation (credit: energyportal.eu)

logging and development but the other, Canada’s Boreal forests also represents a key battleground against Climate Change. Set in the in the far north, not far below the arctic line, the Boreal forests are a huge band across Canada stretching from coast to coast, annually temperatures can go from 30C in the summer all the way down to -50C in the winter. Covering 2.9million km^2,, and representing 25% of the world’s un-developed forests the Boreal forests are a huge source of concern for conservationists and Scientists alike.

The Boreal is to carbon what Fort Knox is to gold.
These maps document where and how these vital reserves
– a virtual shield against global warming –
are distributed across Canada. We should do everything we can
to ensure that the carbon in these storehouses is not released.

Dr. Jeff Wells, Senior Scientist, International Boreal Conservation Campaign

From the point of view of Climate Change a truer statement could hardly have been made, because locked up in the Boreal forests are over 100 billion tonnes of Carbon, and they annually sequester 12.5m tonnes of Carbon each year making them a critical sink of Carbon but more importantly a source of Carbon that needs to remain locked in.

Their importance has for several years attracted strong concern from various environmental groups from their own Conservation group the IBCC to Green Peace and a number of similarly concerned conservation and environmental organisations. Many feel that the ever-rising demands from industries that rely on boreal forest resources could in the long-term threaten the Boreal Forests. However a turning point came in 2007 when 1,500 Scientists from over 50 countries signed a letter calling for conservation measures to be put into place.

Their concerns were not without merit. Canada’s natural resources, already a critical part of its economy are subject to ever rising demand. In particular logging, mining and energy development all place demands on the Boreal forest region. These demands are set to increase with the growing appetites of China and India for raw materials, putting greater pressure on provincial governments to open up more of the Boreal forests for development.

As if shouldering the burden of economic weight was not enough, natural phenomena have begin to take their toll on the Boreal forests, forest fires and Pine-beetles, already devastating in the US have taken their toll on Canadian forests. Pine beetles, able to spread through rising temperatures, destroyed 130,000 km² in Western Canada in 2008, as well as devastating parts of the US.

Forest fires, have been equally devastating, with perhaps the most concerning statistic being that in some years forest fires account for up to 45% of Canada’s GHG emissions, and large-scale forest fires have hardly been a scarce: 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Fortunately the importance is starting to sink in and rising awareness has prompted greater efforts to preserve, manage or sustainably develop the Boreal Forests.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest has promised to sustain 50% of its Northern forests from intensive development such as mining and 12% from any development at all. Quebec as in most has to walk the line between mining and logging mining, a multi-billion dollar industries for Canada.

Nevertheless, even Alberta, Canada’s oil state and home of the Tar-sands, has recognised the importance of preservation. The Alberta Research Council, working with the Pembina institute and Forestry leaders has formulated a policy to offset Alberta’s declining Boreal forests.

However, the most groundbreaking effort comes from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, no stranger to bold environmental legislation (he recently proposed the Green Energy Act) he has promised to preserve 50% of Ontario’s Boreal forests and the other half subject to sustainable development regulation. This amounts to 225,000 km² of land where even hunting and fishing will be severely curtailed and other development completely banned.

Of equal importance, is the emphasis on sustainable development for the other 50%. As this article, makes clear up to 24,000 people live in the Boreal forested part of Ontario many of them first nations people and Metis communities. McGuinty has pledged to allow sustainable development with them, including reforming mining, to make it more sustainable. While the plan is estimated to take 10-15 years before its fully realised, like the Green Energy Act, Ontario has become an uncompromising trendsetter in its dedication to environmental pursuits.

The Boreal forests, might not have the attention of the Amazon, and are often second in environmentalists demands, in the place of renewable energy or fighting the tar sands but they represent a key battle that should never be far from campaigners eyes. Much of the above legislation is a start in the right direction, but how durable conservation efforts will prove, in the face of rising global demand for raw materials and the economic benefits to Canadian provinces and even local communities will prove a much greater test in the years ahead.