No details on Quebec’s plan for emissions

The Quebec government thinks it can still meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, but acknowledges it will require tougher measures to do so.

However, the minister in charge of the file says the government isn’t yet ready to announce just what those measures will be.

Quebec Environment Minister Isabelle Melançon made the comments on Friday during a press conference to announce the midway results of the government’s $3.7-million, 2013-20 plan to combat climate change.

Melançon said she still believes that by 2020, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by 20 per cent compared with levels recorded in 1990, even if those levels had only dropped by 8.8 per cent by 2015. However, she adds that drop should be placed in a context that saw the population increase by 18 per cent during the same period, while gross domestic product increased by 60 per cent.

Melançon admits that some existing measures must be more rigorously applied and new measures need to be adopted if the province hopes to do better.

The minister said proposals that touched upon vehicles, transportation and support to municipalities had been received by a cabinet committee on climate change, but that she wasn’t prepared to announce them until the publication of the government’s policy on sustainable mobility.