“There is clearly room for improvement” with Californian carbon credits, says Quebec’s Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, three days before his departure for the American west coast, where he will discuss the major reform of the emerging Quebec and California carbon market.
Offset credits — from activities that are not subject to the carbon market, such as forestry or agriculture — allow major emitters in Quebec to cover up to 8% of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ). Until now, the vast majority of offset credits used in Quebec have come from forestry projects carried out in the United States.
However, the climate benefits of these forestry projects would be greatly overestimated, according to American scientists who have been sounding the alarm for two years. “There are questions, on the Californian side, as to how to account for or use these offset credits,” admitted Mr. Charette in an interview with the Duty. The minister intends to ask questions on this subject to those opposite.
Last December, the CAQ government adopted a regulation that allows the creation of carbon credits in private forests on this side of the border, which people in the area have been waiting for a long time. This new regulation provides a framework “significantly stricter than what California offers”, notes the minister. “Perhaps they will be able to draw inspiration from the work we have done? he suggests.
Curb capital flight
For the moment, the renewal beyond 2030 of the carbon market – officially called the “cap and trade system for emission rights” (SPEDE) – is not included in Quebec law. The minister assures, however, that it is the firm intention of Quebec, like that of Sacramento, to continue the adventure after this deadline.
Mr. Charette’s discussions with California officials, including his counterpart Wade Crowfoot, will therefore focus on improving the system for the next decade. The question of GHG emission caps — which, according to some analysts, are too low to create real scarcity in the market — will inevitably be addressed.
Moreover, the minister does not rule out considering with the Californians a lowering of the ceilings planned by 2030, but is careful not to promise anything. “These are things that can take some time to be agreed, because you want a certain reciprocity between the two partners,” he explains.
For successive Quebec governments, a recurring problem with the carbon market is that of “capital flight” to the American neighbour. Large companies here pay $230 million annually into Californian coffers to comply, the minister said Wednesday in a parliamentary committee.
“With the terms that we want to change, with the new offset credits available in Quebec, we are confident that in the long term, these are amounts that will decrease year after year,” he said Thursday at the Duty. Even if the sums that fly to California seem high, “we find our account there”, estimates the minister: to carry out all the reductions of GHG strictly on Quebec soil would have cost much more expensive.
Carbon capture
Thinking about the 2030s also leads North American partners to consider a potential protocol governing carbon capture and sequestration. For the moment, there is nothing to recover the CO2 removed from the atmosphere under the Quebec-California carbon market.
Over the next seven years, Mr. Charette does not expect much from this bouquet of technologies that are not yet “mature”, according to him. “But for post-2030, in particular to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, it is a technology that will have matured and which will undoubtedly be useful to us. »
The ministerial talks over the next few days will be followed, starting this summer or next fall, by consultations on the first major reform of the SPEDE since its creation 10 years ago. A draft regulatory amendment should follow towards the end of the year.