Polluters Exploit Alberta Government Loopholes to Increase Greenhouse Gas Pollution

On April 22, 2009, the Government of Alberta announced the results of the first full year of its targets to reduce industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution "intensity" (pollution per unit of production). Reductions in GHG "intensity" do not deliver reductions in actual emissions if industrial production continues to increase, as is the case in the oilsands sector. In its 2008 climate change plan, the government acknowledged that it expects Alberta's total GHG pollution to continue to increase until 2020.

"The government's claim to emissions reductions fails to provide the whole story," said Dan Woynillowicz, Acting Director of Alberta Energy Solutions with the Pembina Institute. "The fact is that Alberta's system is not working and is fundamentally flawed. When the regulations came into effect in 2007 the province's pollution still increased by almost 6 per cent over the previous year."

According to Environment Canada's latest data, just released this week, Alberta's GHG emissions are now 44 per cent above the 1990 level. The data shows that in 2007, the very year when Alberta's regulations took effect, pollution in the province rose by 5.6 per cent over the 2006 level.

The reliance of industry on paying a $15 per tonne levy to continue to pollute increased between 2007 and 2008, with a majority of required emission "reductions" resulting from polluters paying the levy instead of actually reducing emissions. The government has not yet announced how it will use this money, which it holds in its Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund. In addition, a significant portion of the "reductions" represented by offsets may not be a result of the regulations, in which case they should not be claimed as such.

Woynillowicz noted, "It's clear that real emissions caps that lead to genuine reductions are coming in both Canada and the United States, and Alberta will not be able to continue down its current path."

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For more information contact:

Dan Woynillowicz
Acting Director, Alberta Energy Solutions
Cell: 403-888-6272
Email: danw@pembina.org

BACKGROUND

The Government of Alberta's Backgrounder on 2008 greenhouse gas emission reductions was inaccurate in its tabulation of results.

Emission performance credits (EPC) should not be counted as "emission reductions" given that they can be banked for future use by the facility that generated them or be sold to others as an offset.

For example, the 1.03 million tonnes  (Mt of carbon dioxide equivalents) of EPCs generated in 2007 were presumably used to meet facility improvement targets or sold as carbon offsets in 2008 (or will be sold in a future year). This results in "double counting," wherein reductions are counted once in the year the EPC is generated and a second time when the credit is used for future compliance.

As a result, the Alberta government has overstated both the 2007 and 2008 emission reductions (6.53 and 3.9 Mt, respectively). As shown in Table 1, the reductions were 4.64 and 2.66 Mt, respectively.

The Pembina Institute also has serious concerns that a significant portion of the "reductions" represented by offsets may have occurred anyway, in the absence of the regulations. Accordingly, we believe that the government should not claim these reductions as a result of the regulations in the absence of a clear demonstration that offsets go beyond "business-as-usual."

Table 1*

*All figures are rounded for presentation.

The Pembina Institute and Toxic Watch Society's analysis and recommendations regarding the Government of Alberta's implementation of the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund can be downloaded here.

The Government of Alberta's media release, “Alberta realizes 6.5 million tonnes of GHG reductions,” can be found here.