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Ottawa, November 25th 2016. Federal environment minister Catherine McKenna announced today the beginning of a consultation process to develop a clean fuel standard in Canada. A clean fuel standard is a regulatory requirement to reduce the carbon footprint of all fuels sold in Canada, based on a full lifecycle carbon analysis of the fuel. This would apply to fuels we use in our cars, in heavy trucks, in our homes and buildings, and the fuels that power our industries.
Minister McKenna noted that a clean fuel standard could reduce GHG emissions by 30 megatonnes annually by 2030. This is equivalent to removing over 7 million vehicles from the roads for a year or potentially 10 % of our Paris Agreement commitment.
"Considering that GHG emissions from the transportation sector currently account for about 23% of overall emissions in Canada, a clean fuel standard is an essential policy" stated Steven Guilbeault, principal director at Équiterre. "A clean fuel standard can reduce emissions from the existing fleet of vehicles on Canadian roads and is especially critical to reducing emissions from freight transport" added Mr. Guilbeault.
A clean fuel standard is a flexible regulation that can promote the use of clean technology, lower carbon fuels, and promote alternatives such as electricity. Ontario and Saskatchewan already have effective renewable fuels requirements. British Columbia has implemented a low-carbon fuel standard, which requires reduction of the lifecycle GHG emissions of the fuels sold in that province every year.
"In order to be effective, it is important that a clean fuel standard distinguishes between the types of oil that go into the gasoline blend, whether from crude oil or oil sands, as those have significantly different carbon intensity" stated Annie Bérubé, director of government relations at Équiterre. "We therefore look forward to engaging in those consultations in order to ensure that an accurate lifecycle analysis of the carbon Intensity is applied to all types of fuels sold in Canada” added Ms. Annie Bérubé.
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For more informations :
Dale Robertson, medias relations, Équiterre
drobertson@equiterre.org
514 605-2000