Carbon Tax Canadians have been clear about what they want: clean air and good jobs, a healthy environment, and a strong economy. Today, the Government of Canada delivered a plan that outlines the next steps to continue delivering on those priorities for everyone.
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the release of the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Canada’s Next Steps to Clean Air and a Strong Economy. The plan is an ambitious and achievable sector-by-sector approach for Canada to reach its new climate target of cutting emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and to put us on track toward our goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Building on the actions of millions of Canadians, Indigenous Peoples, businesses, provinces, territories, and municipalities, the Government of Canada is continuing to take action to fight climate change, create jobs, and ensure that Canadians are global leaders in the transition to clean industries and technologies.
The 2030 Emissions Reductions Plan includes $9.1 billion in new investments to cut pollution and grow the economy, including:
- Making it easier for Canadians to switch to electric vehicles. We are investing more than $2.9 billion in charging infrastructure, providing financial support to make buying zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) more affordable, supporting clean medium- and heavy-duty transportation projects, and developing a regulated sales mandate so that 100 per cent of new passenger vehicles sold in Canada will be zero emission by 2035, with interim targets of at least 20 per cent by 2026, and at least 60 per cent by 2030.
- Greening Canada’s homes and buildings. By investing around $1 billion, we will develop a national net-zero by 2050 buildings plan, the Canada Green Buildings Strategy, work with provinces, territories, and other partners to support the adoption of the highest tier building codes, pilot community-scale retrofits, and facilitate deep energy retrofits for large buildings.
- Helping industries to adopt clean technology and transition to net-zero emissions. We are delivering historic investments to enable industries to be clean and competitive and creating greater incentives for clean technologies and fuels, such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage.
- Making Canada’s grid even cleaner. We will develop a regulated Clean Electricity Standard, make additional investments of about $850 million in clean energy projects like wind and solar power, and work with provinces and territories, stakeholders, and Indigenous partners to move Canada’s electricity grid to net-zero emissions by 2035 while continuing to ensure that Canadians and businesses have access to reliable, affordable power.
- Reducing oil and gas emissions. We will continue working closely with provinces and territories, stakeholders, and Indigenous partners to develop an approach to cap oil and gas sector emissions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, reduce oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75 per cent by 2030, and create good jobs. The plan includes a projected contribution for the oil and gas sector of a 31 per cent reduction from 2005 levels, which is equivalent to 42 per cent from 2019 levels and will guide the government’s work to develop the cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector.
- Supporting farmers in building a clean, prosperous future. We are supporting farmers with about $1 billion for new and expanded programs to help them develop and adopt sustainable practices, energy-efficient technologies, and solutions like capturing carbon from the air.
- Empowering communities to take climate action. We are investing $2.2 billion in expanding the Low Carbon Economy Fund to support projects from governments, schools, non-profits, Indigenous Peoples, and more to cut pollution and create jobs in communities across the country.
- Embracing the power of nature to fight climate change. We will make an additional investment of $780 million to help Canada’s oceans, wetlands, peatlands, grasslands, and agricultural lands capture and store carbon, and explore the potential for negative emission technologies in the forest sector.
The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Canada’s Next Steps to Clean Air and a Strong Economy reflects submissions from over 30,000 Canadians, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, industry, civil society, and the independent Net-Zero Advisory Body. The plan represents a whole-of-society approach with practical ways to achieve emission reductions across all parts of the economy.
The Government of Canada will continue working with all Canadians to develop and implement the new policies and initiatives announced today. The government will publish an update on progress toward meeting the emissions reductions targets in late 2023.
Quotes
“Taking real climate action that is not only ambitious, but also achievable, is key to building a strong economy in the 21st century. With the additional measures announced today, we are continuing to deliver on the priorities Canadians asked us to address: clean air, good jobs, a strong economy, and a better future for everyone.”
“This is the next major step in our government’s plan to reduce pollution and create good, sustainable jobs in Canada. With our natural resources, highly skilled workforce, and strong financial system, Canada stands to benefit substantially by increasing our climate ambition. Thanks to the actions of millions of Canadians, we have flattened the curve of our pollution trajectory, and this roadmap charts the course to lowering emissions to meet our climate target of 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels. By acting collectively now, we are positioning Canada to be a leader in the clean economy.”
“The transition to a cleaner, prosperous, and more competitive economy must be an immediate priority and a sustained effort in the years ahead. Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reductions Plan outlines how we can achieve our 2030 target, while building pathways to net-zero emissions by 2050 and creating economic opportunities for Canadians across the country.”
Quick Facts
- Today’s measures build on Canada’s existing climate actions outlined under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (2016), Canada’s Strengthened Climate Plan: A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy (2020), and Budget 2021. These actions have already contributed to reducing emissions in 2030 by 36 per cent from 2005 levels, while creating economic opportunities across the country.
- The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act establishes in law Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement of 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels and net-zero by 2050, and requires Canada to publish a series of plans and progress reports to support the achievement of those targets.
- The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Canada’s Next Steps to Clean Air and a Strong Economy is the first of many plans on the pathway to 2050 and fulfills a requirement under the Act.
- The 2030 plan is designed to be evergreen – a comprehensive roadmap that reflects levels of ambition to guide emissions reduction efforts in each sector. As governments, businesses, non-profits, and communities across the country work together to reach these targets, we will identify and respond to new opportunities.
- To ensure Canada stays on course as it reduces emissions, the plan includes an interim greenhouse gas emissions objective of 20 per cent below the 2005 level for 2026, which is required under the Act. The Act also requires the Government of Canada to prepare progress reports by the end of 2023, 2025, and 2027.
- The Net-Zero Advisory Body is a group of experts with a diverse range of experience and expertise that advises the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on the best pathways for Canada to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, while growing the economy and creating good jobs.
Related Products
- Backgrounder: 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan – Canada’s Next Steps for Clean Air and a Strong Economy
- 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy
Associated Links
Some replies >>> What do you think?
Canada is being deliberately destroyed while certain leaders become incredibly wealthy.
Canada has one of the cleanest environments in the world and the Boreal Forest can absorb more than 10 times the emissions of Canada today. This is only about control. Control of you the reader. As this control plan happens people will suffer and food will become difficult to find and buy. Get ready to live in poverty. Doubt this at your own risk. In the meantime despite Canada having the cleanest environment in the world, no one looks at others and what they do. The picture I attached is what I looked at every day while serving this once wonderful country in another place. Canadians need to wake up and see what certain rulers in Canada are doing while they get rich controlling you.
Canada is proof of what poor leadership can do to a country no matter how wealthy it is. Canada had the resources and proximity to the largest and wealthiest market on the planet, that should have made its (few)citizens the wealthiest people on the planet. Instead they are struggling.
Does Canada have the infrastructure to support electric vehicles? How will the western provinces fair in this reduction plan? Are the batteries from electric vehicles recyclable or will they just sit in the land fill producing free radicals? Will a young couple attending or just out of university be able to own a vehicle? Will the system continue to prevent people of colour to progress? Is racism part of your emissions plan to help, First Nations and Blacks combat poverty and degradation? Do you want to make Canada clean, have a clean, green environment? Start by cleaning the hearts and thoughts of its people. There’s more to the environment than, trees, rivers, lakes and air. Show me a strategic plan to fix my human environment then I’ll listen to your other reduction plans. Reduce my inequality in wages and opportunities then I won’t have to fight to survive, I will have time to listen.
Build Energy East to offset the Oil Tankers travelling all the way around the world running on bunker fuel transporting foreign oil into Canada (produced with limited regulations across the board). That would be the single biggest tangible action you could do to reduce Canada’s emissions. Justin Trudeau you don’t even believe your own lies!!
If you look at how vehicle emissions work in Canadian cars you can easily prove that Canada has been environmentally conscious for decades. There are four gasses that are emitted from cars. CO, CO2, NOx and H2O. The CO combines with the H2O and the catalytic converter to transform into CO2. All the gases are readily absorbed and processed by the environment. If you need proof, there is only 0.03% CO2 in the atmosphere, this has not changed for hundreds of years. For another proof that Canadians are environmentally conscious we just have to look up. We have blue skies. If we were to pollute extensively, we would frequently see grey or orange skies, as they frequently see in China. We need no emissions reduction plan, we need a debt reduction plan. You’ve doubled our debt and the budget won’t be balanced until 2070. You have claimed to be a practicing Catholic, yet you are militantly pro abortion and pro euthanasia. No true Catholic supports those practices, and no true Catholic would have let the churches on the reserves burn as you did last year. You’re nothing but a fraud Justin and the sooner Canada votes you out, the better.
Gas price spikes create carbon-tax turmoil for politicians
Conservative MP pressures N.B. premier to clear way for Trudeau carbon price and rebate.
Soaring gas prices are scrambling the politics of carbon taxes in New Brunswick.
A federal Conservative MP who campaigned against Justin Trudeau’s pricing plan now says it’s the least-bad option for softening the blow to consumer pocketbooks while a litre of unleaded gas hovers around $1.70.
That in turn highlights Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs’s own reversal on his promise from 2018: to ensure the federal scheme had no impact on taxpayers’ bottom line.
New Brunswick Southwest MP John Williamson startled Conservatives and Liberals alike last week when he called on Higgs to immediately scrap his own provincial carbon tax system so that Ottawa would impose its version, which includes rebates.
Ottawa rejects Higgs’s carbon tax ‘deferral’ idea for bringing down gas costs
Higgs pitches deferring carbon tax to ease skyrocketing pump prices
“The backstop will kick in, the feds will take it over, and as part of that change-up … cheques will begin to roll out to New Brunswick families,” Williamson said.
Higgs dismissed that possibility, saying the faster solution is Ottawa suspending the pricing standard it imposes on the provinces.
That standard requires provinces to charge an 8.8-cent charge on a litre of unleaded gasoline, increasing to 11 cents April 1.
The Trudeau government says that increase will go ahead despite calls for a pause.
Williamson says while his party still wants to “kill the Liberal carbon tax,” the federal position leaves Higgs no choice but to let it take effect in New Brunswick so consumers here get rebates.
“This is a good way to help people right away,” he said.
