(Glasgow) Before being elected prime minister, François Legault said he was going to install a counter on his desk to count the jobs he was going to create.
Now he is counting the tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) that he manages to subtract from Quebec’s balance sheet. He says he has evolved on the issue of the environment.
The tally of the last three days is a reduction of almost 5.4 million tonnes of air pollution per year – out of the 80 million tonnes emitted by Quebec each year.
But while all countries are called on by the UN to strengthen their targets for reducing polluting emissions to limit global warming, Quebec did not present during this COP26 a new reduction target more demanding than that of 37.5% for 2030.
Quebec has also failed to announce, despite repeated calls from Mr. Legault, new partner states for its carbon exchange, its trading and GHG emissions limitation market with California.
During his first participation as Prime Minister at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), François Legault was as busy quantifying business investments in Quebec as calculating the drop in GHG emissions. , to achieve the reduction targets set for 2030 and beyond.
During the last three days of his mission, from Tuesday to Thursday, he announced commitments which, in the long term, therefore represent a potential drop in Quebec’s emissions of nearly 5.4 million tonnes of GHGs per year.
At a press conference to take stock of his mission, he said he had changed since the time when in the 2018 elections his party presented the most modest program in the environment.
” I’ve evolved ”
“I have evolved”, he said in one of the rooms of the huge complex which hosts the COP in Glasgow.
“We have developed new sectors, we will, at the same time as reducing GHGs, create new industries, such as electric buses, such as trains, green hydrogen, such as batteries. On that, I evolved. More wealth, less GHGs. This is what I realized. More than ever, there is a cost, but also an extraordinary business opportunity. ”
On Thursday, he joined an announcement from Alcoa and Rio Tinto smelters on a new technology that, if adopted by all factories in Quebec, would reduce GHG emissions by 5 million tonnes per year.
He also announced that the Diageo distillery in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, which produces Crown Royal in particular, would invest, with governments, a total of $ 94 million to reduce GHG emissions by 40,000 tonnes per year. This is equivalent to eliminating the consumption of approximately 21,000,000 cubic meters of natural gas and 1,500 liters of heavy fuel oil.
Previously, he announced that a new process at Arcelor Mittal’s Port-Cartier iron plant would also reduce emissions by 200,000 tonnes per year.
He also announced 5 billion for the purchase of electric city buses, which will ultimately eliminate around 131,500 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year.
Carbon exchange
Overall, for this COP, the Legault government therefore specifically targeted the industry, which represents approximately 30% of Quebec’s 80 megatonnes of emissions.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister again called on other American provinces or states to join the carbon exchange: an “effective” way to reduce emissions from large industrial polluters by charging the price per tonne of carbon.
Despite Quebec’s efforts, Ontario refused to join, and so did Manitoba. So the competitors of Quebec companies do not have to pay for their polluting emissions.
“It is important that Quebec and California do not remain alone in the carbon exchange. It is important that our companies are not the only ones, along with those in California, to have a social responsibility to reduce GHGs. ”
He sees it as unfair competition. He demands that the United States, neighbors and competitors of Quebec, also put a price on the carbon emitted by their companies.
Truck transport
Finally, the Prime Minister has not announced any new large-scale measures to reduce the footprint of road transport in Quebec’s GHG assessment.
The 5 billion to buy 2,148 electric buses represent a considerable envelope, but it is estimated that the measure will reduce emissions by 131,500 tonnes per year: this is a relative weight on the 28.7 million tonnes of GHGs emitted. by road transport in the annual report of Quebec.
In its defense, the government is banking on 55 billion announced for projects of light trains, trams, etc.
Transport is one of the two sectors, along with industry, where Quebec “can do more”, acknowledged the Prime Minister.
Opponents hoped he would announce the abandonment of his costly Quebec-Lévis tunnel project, the third link estimated at more than 10 billion, but the premier repeated that this is the solution to a traffic problem. .