Industry’s help needed to hit green targets

OTTAWA— Of the challenges it has placed on the table, there can be little question the toughest will be the Liberal government’s quest to meet international global warming targets.

When Justin Trudeau formally signed the Paris climate agreement at the United Nations last month, he received applause and warm words on the international stage.

But the fact remains this country has no road map that will allow it to reach the Paris carbon reduction targets. It cannot even claim to have a plan to hit the much more modest targets it inherited from the former Conservative government, targets it has deemed to be a floor.

Even if it could reach the Conservative targets, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated a dip in the gross domestic product of up to 3 per cent, perhaps lowering the average Canadian income by about $1,900.

Rough seas await and there are reasons to believe that the Trudeau term could be defined by this prime minister’s balance of pipelines versus environmental stewardship, the type of Canadian conundrum that can take the shine off anyone’s international green credentials in a hurry.

As meetings continue among provincial and federal officials with an eye to passing off a plan to provincial environmental ministers next month — one step from a panCanadian plan for the autumn (a hugely ambitious goal) — there are signs that government talk is leading to some action.

We have already seen oil and gas executives standing with Premier Rachel Notley as she announced new climate change policy in Alberta late last year.

Monday, Canada’s forest products industry stepped up, pledging it would be a player in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and helping Ottawa hit its 2030 targets.

“Stuff is moving and you can choose to watch it go by you and miss it, or you can choose to say, ‘How can we be part of this and make it work for us?’ ” Derek Nighbor, the CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, told me Monday.

He credits the Trudeau government for changing focus and helping the provinces move on the environment.

The environment is now part of the cross-talk in myriad government departments, he says, giving his industry an opportunity to take a second look at its own performance and “become more proactive rather than having something come at us.”

Canada has committed to cutting overall emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The forest products industry says it can comprise 13 per cent of that target with a mix of better forestry practices, greater use of carbon-sequestering woods products and greater efficiencies in its mills.

And it wants continued changes to building codes so taller wooden buildings can be erected.

It is one facet of the carbon debate rarely mentioned, but a United Nations report says urban buildings account for 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions — a number believed to be even higher in Canada.

The association is eyeing wood laminate buildings as tall as 18 storeys planned for the University of British Columbia or a 13-storey “timber tower” in Quebec City.

These wood laminate buildings would store carbon and leave a much smaller footprint than traditional construction materials of concrete and steel.

One Vancouver architect, Michael Green, has estimated one 100,000 square-foot wood building takes the carbon equivalent of the emissions from 1,410 cars out of the atmosphere each year.

Besides changes to the building code, the industry wants preferential treatment in government procurement and its “fair share” of the clean technology fund established by the government in the March budget.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has not been shy about conceding the challenges ahead as she deals with provincial governments with different priorities, different needs and different economies — not to mention different levels of action already taken.

There was a marked difference in tone in a first ministers’ conference Trudeau convened before the Paris meeting, and a post-Paris meeting where bonhomie had to give ground to specifics.

A pledge from an industry that has not always had a green reputation may sound somewhat arcane. But there is reason to believe that the conversation has fundamentally changed in this country.

Targets are a long way off and may well remain elusive, but industry appears to have has seen the future and realizes it’s better to jump aboard a train rather than be steamrolled by it. Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1