Opinion: Canada’s carbon offset market starts to take shape, with a lot of pitfalls still to be avoided

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Canada’s carbon offset market starts to take shape, with a lot of pitfalls still to be avoided

On Wednesday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced that he is ready to launch a domestic carbon offset market. It will allow certain sectors not covered by industrial carbon pricing to generate credits by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, then sell those credits to heavy emitters that need to meet carbon-pricing obligations.

In part, Ottawa is grappling with challenges that surround any offset system, including those in three Canadian provinces that have already set up their own systems and from which Mr. Guilbeault said he has been drawing lessons. And there are more basic imperatives, such as confirming that emissions reductions being rewarded with credits are actually happening, for which the government is promising third-party verification.

The complication is that, unlike the carbon price paid by most fossil-fuel consumers in Canada, the one for large industry prices only a share of a company’s emissions, as a way of protecting international competitiveness. And Ottawa has allowed most provinces to set up their own industrial pricing systems, with varying degrees of stringency on the threshold at which the price kicks in.

The stringency discrepancies are a problem for meeting Canada’s climate targets already, and Mr. Guilbeault is in the midst of negotiating stricter equivalency agreements with the provinces. But taking a tough line on that front will be all the more critical as offsets enter the equation.

 

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I cannot take a criminal seriously

Wonder how many ppl can no longer afford to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle because of Carbon Tax?

Écolo-Imposteur !!! 🤮🤮🤮

Just another Liberal scam

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