CAN-Rac Reacts to PM’s carbon pricing announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONTREAL, October 3, 2016 – Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of Climate Action Network – Réseau action climat (CAN-Rac) Canada, reacts to Prime Minister Trudeau’s announcement on a pan-Canadian carbon price:

“Today Prime Minster Trudeau showed conviction when it comes to putting a price on carbon across Canada. Carbon pricing is a critical element of a climate plan that sets Canada up do our fair share in the global effort to cut climate pollution.

Carbon pricing is one piece of a bigger picture. Only a plan that combines carbon pricing with ambitious regulations in every sector of the economy will result in emissions reductions deep enough to reach our current climate targets and put Canada on a path to exceeding those targets.

Carbon pricing, and climate plans, are only as good as the emissions reductions they result in. It is therefore significant that today’s announcement acknowledged the link between an effective carbon pricing system and the need for legislated emissions reduction targets.

By making carbon pricing revenue neutral for the federal government, this plan puts the onus on provinces and territories to make good use of the money generated from a carbon price by investing in the clean energy infrastructure of the future and helping to improve the lives of vulnerable Canadians.

With this announcement, the Prime Minister has laid part of the groundwork for a comprehensive Framework on Climate Change and Clean Growth, which CAN-Rac and its members expect to see when First Ministers meet in Ottawa in December.

A built-in accountability mechanism is essential to the credibility of that Framework. It is therefor encouraging to see plans for a review of Canada’s carbon pricing plan in 2022.”

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Contact:

Catherine Abreu
Executive Director
Climate Action Network – Réseau action climat Canada
902 412 8953