Alberta leads the way on climate
“Notley NDP makes pigs fly”
That’s how one media commentator reacted to the broad and unlikely assortment of corporate CEOs, union leaders, doctors, small- and big-city mayors and environmentalists who stood with Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips as she unveiled the province’s signature climate legislation last week.
We’ve long heard how important Alberta’s economic success is to the success of the overall economy.
In many ways, Alberta’s success in driving down carbon emissions is even more important to our national well-being. This is why the province’s new climate action strategy deserves the support of all Canadians.
Alberta’s ambitious plan has a variety of elements, including phasing out dirty coal-fired power plants, creating a provincial electricity-efficiency strategy and capping emissions from the oilsands.
In addition, it focuses on levying an economy-wide price on carbon pollution — a step widely supported by economists and a growing number of business leaders as a rational and responsible way to curb emissions.
The national implications of Alberta’s efforts are huge. In a surprisingly positive recent study by EnviroEconomics, respected economists Dave Sawyer and Chris Bataille note that “if the current policies continue and the developing policies are implemented as announced,” the Canadian electricity sector is on a path to reducing GHC emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
What a welcome tonic to the perennial doom and gloom surrounding climate change.
On a per-capita basis, the contribution that Alberta is proposing to make to this “deep decarbonization” good-news story is significant. Without the Alberta measures, the study suggests there is little chance that Canada as a whole would meet the emission-reduction commitments recently made in Paris.
Thankfully, despite a serious economic downturn, and even with the economic hit created by unprecedented forest fires, the Alberta government is making progress in building a consensus around the need for climate action.
It’s tough slogging and not everybody is convinced. Some members of Alberta’s climate-skeptical opposition parties reacted to the government announcement by posting wacky conspiracy-theory videos. Abusive attacks on social media directed at Phillips and others are a dime a dozen. And Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark muttered about how a carbon levy was really just a stealthy “wealth redistribution tax.”
Of course, the truth is that the real “redistribution” that has been taking place under the radar for decades is the transfer of the health and economic costs of pollution onto ordinary people, thanks to the free dumping of carbon and other pollutants into our atmosphere and water tables.
By contrast, Alberta is actually focused on helping people by making it possible for them to improve the energy efficiency — and comfort — of their homes and by providing rebates for up to two-thirds of the province’s residents to help offset the modest impact of responsibly pricing carbon.
The government is also investing signif- icantly in renewable energy, both to power the province and support new sectors and employment opportunities.
But for some, the old system of polluting for “free” is, not surprisingly, still very attractive. The owners of large coal-fired generating stations are doing their best to whip up hysteria about the supposed “costs” of moving away from dirty coal, while continuing to ignore the massive health costs of mercury, lead and other heavy metal emissions, along with massive amounts of greenhouse gases and noxious smog components.
Of course, Alberta is blessed with more than fossil fuels. It has tremendous wind and solar resources and the cost of tapping these emission-free energy sources is dropping like a rock. In the U.S. Midwest, wind power is now cheaper than natural gas generation. It could soon be the same story in Alberta.
Alberta has not only joined other provinces in actually doing something about the massive threat posed by climate change, it has vaulted into the lead.
Setting targets is nice, but without plans and mechanisms to meet those targets, they are just pie in the sky — as a long series of broken federal climate promises makes amply clear.
There are lessons to be gleaned from the Notley government as other provinces wrestle with their own carbon strategies. Chief among these is the need to secure support from key stakeholders for this extremely difficult and complex work.
If some of the leaked details of the contemplated Ontario climate plan are accurate, the Wynne government could do worse than emulate the example of Alberta.