Alberta creates $1.4B fund to battle emissions

CALGARY Alberta’s NDP government is creating a new $1.4 billion fund to help industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The biggest chunk of the funding, which will be doled out over seven years, sees $440 million earmarked for oilsands innovation to help companies increase production while reducing emissions.

The new fund will also see $225-million available across sectors for projects that support climate change technology, $240 million for industrial energy efficiency measures, $63 million for bioenergy and $400 million in loan guarantees to support efficiency and renewable energy measures.

“There’s a basket of programs here,” Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Tuesday at a news conference at McDougall Centre. “And what we’re trying to do is make sure that there’s something at every level to push that innovation forward.”

The funding comes primarily from revenue collected through Alberta’s economy-wide carbon tax — introduced as part of the NDP’s sweeping climate change initiative — and levy on large industrial emitters.

The previous Progressive Conservative government introduced a levy on large emitters such as oilsands plants and utilities in 2007 that saw over $740 million brought into a climate change and emissions management fund. About $327 million had been allocated to emissions reduction projects.

Phillips said the new plan is different in part because the levy on industrial operations is changing.

The government will release details of its new output-based allocation system, which is intended to reward facilities with lower emissions based on sector-specific performance standards, later this week. The minister said the new program is also much more broadly-based than in the past.

“We’re taking a more ‘whole-ofthe-economy’ view of the innovation ecosystem,” she said.

David MacLean, vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said the government’s announcement will help push investment to technology that will lower emissions.

“Since the Climate Leadership Plan was introduced, we’ve been looking for ways to see some of that revenue, some of the power that is in that, helping to drive investment,” said MacLean, who took part in the government’s announcement.