A “SPEDE” to fight climate change is the best environmental idea to come from Ottawa in decades.
SPEDE is the “Cap and Trade System for Emissions Rights”. It is better known in the industry by its English name, “Cap-and-trade system”.
This is a system where companies that emit substances harmful to the environment have a limit imposed on what they can release as pollution.
Beyond this limit, a company must buy credits in a market that somewhat resembles the stock market. Conversely, a company which innovates and which manages to reduce its emissions below the limit granted to it can sell its emission rights to another company which does not succeed as quickly as it would like. .
Until now, Ottawa has relied on the carbon tax to force the industry to bend, even though this measure is just that, a tax.
The government assumed that a carbon tax would reduce the use of fossil fuels, but this result was far from certain…
Imposing a limit on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the entire industry, particularly the tar sands, was essential to enable Canada to respect its international obligations.
However, from now on, with SPEDE, the total quantity of emissions is determined in advance and the ceiling is constantly lowered.
It is a binding obligation that guarantees a result.
Solid
The Supreme Court recently declared the federal government’s attempt to impose a new, more restrictive system of environmental analyzes unconstitutional. Trudeau and Guilbeault were slapped on the wrist for not having respected the jurisdictions of the provinces.
The Federal Court has just ruled that Ottawa exceeded its jurisdiction by decreeing that certain plastic products, including straws, are toxic. It was a largely symbolic ban aimed at appealing to an environmentally conscious public.
But there is one thing that the Supreme Court has clearly established as indeed a federal responsibility, in the interest of future generations, and that is the fight against climate change.
By presenting their new plan, Trudeau, Guilbeault and the excellent Minister of Energy, Wilkinson, are finally on solid ground.
Precedents work
Canada and the United States created the first transnational SPEDE several decades ago to combat acid rain.
It was a resounding success, which we owe to the Mulroney government, which at the time had achieved a stunning diplomatic and environmental coup.
Quebec already has a joint SPEDE system with California. It is thanks to this agreement that Quebec is largely exempt from Trudeau’s carbon tax. That too is a success.
Consult the provinces
Trudeau had to renounce certain effects of his carbon tax because it did not take into account the reality of the Atlantic provinces.
For this new SPEDE system to have a chance of working, it is absolutely necessary to involve the fossil fuel-producing provinces.
However, Ottawa stupidly started in this matter by asking the Alberta Prime Minister to sign a confidentiality agreement, otherwise we would not share the details of the plan with her!
While this plan is a great idea, it’s going to take a change in attitude for it to become a reality.