Canada matches US carbon emissions target

OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada has aligned itself with the United States in setting a 2020 carbon emissions target of 17 percent below 2005 levels, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Sunday.

The target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under last month's Copenhagen Accord was submitted to the United Nations on Saturday, two days after the United States announced its objective.

The summit had asked nations to report by January 31 whether they would associate themselves with the accord and join efforts to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose legal obligations run out at the end of 2012.

"This is in keeping with our commitment, as I indicated in the days leading up to Copenhagen and afterwards, to align our policies with those of our continental partner," Prentice told a press conference.

"We'll deal specifically with the oil sands, we'll deal specifically with all sources of emissions," he said.

"We know we can achieve that target, we're prepared to stand behind it and other countries will now have to do the same."

Environmentalists panned the plan, saying it would lead to a 2.5 percent increase in Canada's CO2 emissions from 1990 levels, in contrast to Ottawa's previous plan announced in 2006 to cut emissions by three percent.

"The new target will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions rather than reduce them," Greenpeace said in a statement. "This new target is thus even worse than the one previously adopted by Canada."

"Furthermore, Greenpeace has no reason to believe that the target, as mediocre as it is, will be met by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which reneged on its Kyoto Protocol obligations and allowed Canadian greenhouse gas emissions to rise."

Prentice said Canada wants a comprehensive and binding international treaty that builds on the framework agreement reached in Copenhagen and "that applies to all carbon emitters, including China and the United States."

In the meantime, he said Canada and the United States would harmonize their strategies and roll out piecemeal emissions cuts.

"In terms of motor vehicles, starting in 2011, we will have continental tailpipe emissions standards that will deal with carbon emissions for passenger vehicles," Prentice said.

"We're also moving forward on harmonization with air transport emissions, marine emissions, as well as those from heavy vehicles, all on a concerted continental basis."

The United States, long the industrial world's main holdout from climate change agreements, said Thursday it would cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

The European Union meanwhile has pledged to cut emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and agreed to raise its target to 30 percent if other large emitters pledge similar CO2 cuts.