Environmentalists attacked the Conservative government's new emissions plan on Wednesday, saying it will accomplish too little, too late.

Environment Minister John Baird says Canada will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 150 million tonnes by 2020.
(CBC)

The new plan, which was officially announced Wednesday after being leaked to the Liberal party Tuesday, calls for Canada to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 150 million tonnes by 2020.

Environmentalist John Bennett, of the new non-profit agency ClimateForChange, said Canada actually needs to reduce emissions by 300 million tonnes by 2012 if it wants to meet the targets set out by the international Kyoto Protocol, which Canada signed.

"So basically, we'll be meeting half of the target about 10 years late," Bennett told CBC News Online.

"The plan is inadequate. It doesn't take the problem of climate change seriously enough to take serious action."

The Conservatives mistakenly faxed details of the plan to Liberal environment critic David McGuinty late Tuesday. In response, Environment Minister John Baird released some details of his plan publicly on Wednesday morning, instead of waiting until Thursday, as he had planned.

With the new plan, the Tories intend to halt the rise of greenhouse gases in three to five years by forcing 700 of the largest industrial polluters in Canada to reduce their emissions.

"We need to do a U-turn," Baird said Wednesday morning. "We don't want to replace 10 years of bad environmental policy with 10 years of bad economic policy.”

Plan demands action from industry

The plan, dubbed Turning the Corner, calls for industries to make in-house reductions, participate in domestic emissions trading, purchase energy offsets and invest in a technology fund.

It also promises emissions caps on major industrial pollutants, with the aim of cutting air pollution in half by 2015.

"If the Liberal government had instituted this plan in 1998, when they signed Kyoto, Canada would have achieved its emissions target," Baird said. "Canada would be at Kyoto today."

The Kyoto Protocol, signed by Canada under Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, has been ratified by 141 countries.

Under Kyoto, Canada must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent from 1990 levels by 2012. The Conservative government has been criticized for not working to meet those targets, targets Baird said last week would have dire effects on Canada's economy.

'Interest of the oil patch above everything else'

To keep in line with Kyoto, Bennett said, Baird's new plan needs to be tougher on industry, which produces half of Canada's emissions.

"This government's putting the interest of the oil patch above everything else," Bennett said in reference to Canada's profitable oil industry, which has been attacked as a significant polluter.

"The health of my children and yours are unimportant compared to the short-term profits of the oil patch."

Environmentalist Matthew Bramley said the new plan not only falls short of Kyoto, it doesn't come close to matching other countries' commitments.

The European Union plans to reduce emissions 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, Bramley pointed out. Canada's new plan is only to reduce emissions by 20 per cent of 2006 levels in the same time frame, Bramley said.

"We fall very short by comparison," he told CBC News Online.

He said he hopes when Baird releases further details about his plan on Thursday, he includes a list of specific measures, each with a clear numerical target. Those measure should all add up to a total target for emissions reductions, Bramley said.

Opposition MPs attack plan

While environmentalists went on the attack, so did opposition MPs, who grilled Baird in the House of Commons. NDP MP Nathan Cullen demanded to know why Baird isn't introducing an environmental bill that can be debated by all members.

"Will the government have the courage to bring in a new bill and have a democratic vote on it in this house?" he asked.

Baird responded that his new plan makes up for years of inaction under the Liberals.

"We're making up for 10 long years when harmful greenhouse gases went up and didn't go down," he said. "We're making up for 10 years when all there was was talk, talk, talk."

Baird's new plan after the Conservatives' previous emission targets bill — the clean air act introduced last fall — was heavily reworked by opposition parties in committee. That bill, C-30, remains in limbo.

Bill C-30 initially had no hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 at the earliest, with the government seeking to cut emissions by between 45 per cent and 65 per cent by 2050.

On Monday, Baird said the federal government was still weighing its response to the amendments and declined to say whether he will bring the altered bill before Parliament for a vote.