ON THE CHEAP: ONLY $100 BILLION FOR CANADA TO ACHIEVE KYOTO TARGETS 

The Canadian Press, 28 February 2007

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Dennis Bueckert, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- It would cost $100 billion over four years for Canada to meet

its Kyoto targets under a plan by Friends of the Earth and Corporate

Knights magazine, one of the first attempts to put a price tag on

addressing climate change.

Although the cost sounds staggering, it amounts to only $20 a week for

the typical family, says Beatrice Olivastri, CEO of Friends of the

Earth.

Based on the polluter-pays principle, the proposal would tax carbon

fuels such as gasoline and coal, and redirect the money to new green

technologies. It would include international emissions trading and the

funding of emissions-cutting projects in the developing world.

So far the Green Party is the only federal party to embrace the concept

of a carbon tax, but MPs from other parties suggested that the mood may

be changing.

Liberal environment critic David McGuinty and New Democratic MP Paul

Dewar praised the proposed plan at a news conference Wednesday, and said

their parties are debating the idea of a carbon tax internally.

Toby Heaps, editor of Corporate Knights, said concern about global

warming has risen to the point where Canadians are ready to make

sacrifices to deal with it.

"There's a real, tangible awareness that something's wrong with the

weather and the climate and humans are the cause of it and we can do

something about it," said Heaps.

"I think that cultural awareness makes us ready today in a way we may

not have been in the past. It's not free but it's not something that

will stop the economy or break the bank."

The federal government has repeatedly said that the Kyoto targets are

unachievable without massive disruption to the economy. But Heaps said

the cost of gasoline, for example, would rise by only a few cents per

litre.

So far, the Harper government's proposals to curb climate emissions have

consisted mainly of subsidy programs and incentives, like the previous

Liberal plan.

The government is working on regulations for heavy industry but these

would depend on "intensity targets" which would allow emissions to

continue rising.

"Everybody who knows this issue agrees that if you don't put a price on

carbon you're spinning your wheels," said Heaps. 

"Subsidy programs are like planting seeds in a bare desert, you won't

get results, you have to make people pay for the privilege to pollute

otherwise they'll do it with reckless abandon. If you don't put a price

on carbon, if people are free to pollute there's no incentive to

conserve or limit." 

The Harper government has ruled out the idea of a carbon tax.