American Style Cap and Trade Comes to Canada

Last Saturday I reviewed an editorial by William Buitner of the Financial Times, in which he argued that cap and trade bill moving through the U.S. Congress was largely a sham. The bill, he argued, allowed for the purchase of carbon offsets that would in effect skirt the limits on emissions for the foreseeable future. In that posting, I suggested that, given the close integration of our economies, Canada would likely follow suit. Well, it has.

In a speech yesterday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced a program of carbon offsets for Canada that would allow those who cannot or do not wish to meet targets to instead buy carbon offsets developed by third parties whose carbon value will be determined by criteria yet to be developed. The accompanying document was short on details, to say the least, but the one firm statement was that

[t]he offset system will pursue a fast-track approach to the development of protocols, in which protocols that have been developed for use in other offset or project-based crediting systems will be the first ones reviewed for possible adaptation for use in Canada's Offset System.

Translating from the bureacratise, I believe this means that we will follow the U.S. lead and will do so without debate or consultation.

In a statement disingenuous even by Tory standards, Minister Prentiss said

The offset system, like all elements of our climate-change plan, is aimed first and foremost at reducing emissions in Canada. And we will be rigorous in ensuring the credits will only be issued for projects that actually reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in this country.

Leaving aside the methodological difficulties of measuring such outcomes, there will surely be a temptation to lean toward optimistic projections of offset results. And it means that the various Alberta oilsands projects, for instance, will in effect be able to plant some trees rather than clean up their act.