The election of Barack Obama, who has voiced strong support for a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, appears to be having an effect on North American environmental politics.
Canada’s conservative government yesterday made a surprising announcement that it would work to develop a North-America-wide cap-and-trade system.
Canada has been criticized in recent months for falling to meet its committment to reduce emissions under the Kyoto protocol, and last month the Conservative party increased is control on the federal government, while opposing the Liberal Party’s ‘Green Shift’ campaign, which included a carbon tax.
The Conservative party’s approach to climate change under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been to merely decrease the intensity of emissions.
But last week Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said a cap-and-trade system and an intensity-based approach could function together. However, negotiating such as system to include all Canadian provinces, the United States and Mexico would undoubtedly be a long and complex process, and Obama’s administration is likely to focus first on gaining approval for a U.S.-only system.
Ottawa also said it would set a goal to produce 90% of Canada’s electricity needs by 2020 from "by non-emitting sources such as hydro, nuclear, clean coal or wind power".
Four Canadian provinces are already part of the Western Climate Initiative, which aims to create a regional cap-and-trade system with states in western U.S.
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