Nova Scotia and greenhouse gases: documentation
I've mentioned quite a bit in this week's Sustainable City column, all of which needs expanding on. That's a tall order, and it's a big reason for this blog's existence: I'd like to get more fully into these issues over time.
For now, let's me lay out a few basic documents to help frame the discussion. Some of these are quite large, so I don't expect anyone to read through them all at once, or even at all, necessarily. I just want them out there as a reference for future use.
First, in terms of quantifying the greenhouse gas problem, because Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the federal government produces an extensive Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which tracks the total amount of GHG emissions, the sources of the emissions, and a breakdown by province and territory. Here (very large PDF file) is the most recent inventory, for the year 2005. Nova Scotia's GHG emissions are tracked on pages 630 and 631.
Next, to show that our political leaders have not denied the dimensions of the problem, and have even paid lip service to solving it, there is the 2001 Climate Change Action Plan (PDF), adopted by the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, including Nova Scotia's John Hamm. That document committed us (see page 7) to reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, ten percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 75- 85 percent below 1990 levels by some future date. It is now impossible to meet the 2010 target, and given the direction we're heading (see below) very unlikely we'll meet the 2020 target.
Those targets are tough, but necessary to avoid disaster. The Ecology Action Centre did a nice job of putting the issues in a readable context, and outlining how the province should proceed to regulate Nova Scotia Power to address them, with a five page briefing, Nova Scotia Integrated Resource Plan GHG Reduction Scenarios (PDF).
In March of this year, the Nova Scotia government adopted the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, which re-committed to:
e) greenhouse gas emissions will be at least ten per cent below the levels that were emitted in the year 1990 by the year 2020, as outlined in the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Climate Change Action Plan of 2001;
So, here we have the government acknowledging the GHG problem, and setting targets for reducing GHG emissions. And, responsibly, we have environmental organizations putting forward ways that we can actually reach those targets.
In December 2006, Environment Northeast (a New England group, with input from Canadian environmental organizations) released the Climate Change Roadmap for New England and Eastern Canada, which put forward concrete ways by which the state and provincial governments could reach the targets they committed to when they adopted the 2001 Climate Change Action Plan.
And, as I reference in today's column, in June the Ecology Action Centre released Pathways to Sustainable Energy Prosperity (PDF) in Nova Scotia, a detailed explanation of how, exactly, the province could meet its announced GHG targets.
Here's where the disconnect comes in. While the provincial government has twice now committed to reducing GHG emissions to ten percent below 1990 levels by 2020, in actual fact it is ignoring the target completely.
The Utility Review Board is now in the process of adopting the Integrated Resource Plan, which will dictate how Nova Scotia Power plans for coming decades. Here is Nova Scotia Power's report on the plan, in parts one (PDF), two (PDF) and three (PDF), which by all indication will be adopted as official government policy, pretty much as written.
As that document correctly notes (on page 5):
Nova Scotia's Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act provides additional guidance to potential future emissions regulations. The legisslation established a goal for Nova Scotia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020. It is unclear how this provincial goal might be translated into limits for NSPI, the transportation sector and other significant sources of greenhouse gases (such as home heating).
Well, yea. But that last sentence is a dodge: GHG emissions from transportation and home heating are large, but Nova Scotia Power by itself accounts for nearly half of all the province's GHG emissions. Certainly we should address transportation and home heating, but we simply can not get to the targets now enshrined in provincial law unless emissions from Nova Scotia Power's generating plants are reduced, and reduced considerably.
And that can't happen unless the utility moves away from coal-fired power generation. Yet, as the graph on page 21 shows, the plan for the future includes no reduction whatsoever in coal generation between now and the year 2029 (the last year of the projections).
In other words, the plan being adopted by the Utility Review Board effectively violates provincial law for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Until some concrete action is taken to actually reduce GHG emissions, the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act isn't worth the paper it's written on.
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