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The Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, is participating on Wednesday in the Climate Ambition Summit, which is being held in New York, at the invitation of the Secretary General of the United Nations. He intends to praise the role of “leader” of the province in this crisis.
Experts emphasize, however, that Quebec still has a lot to do to assert its leadership in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per capita, transforming the transportation sector and adapting to the impacts of global warming.
President of the Quebec government’s advisory committee on climate change, Alain Webster emphasizes that there are in fact “elements that demonstrate a form of leadership”, especially at the Canadian level.
He cites as examples certain important milestones in Quebec’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including the carbon market, the decision to put an end to oil and gas exploration, investments of 9 billion dollars over five years in the Green Economy Plan and funding for climate research.
Mr. Webster nevertheless specifies that, despite the actions taken in recent years, Quebec’s reductions in GHG emissions still do not demonstrate “rapid decarbonization”. He points to the transport sector, where we are seeing continued growth in the vehicle fleet, which is now developing in favor of more energy-intensive vehicles.
Target
According to him, the GHG reduction objectives for the present decade also lack ambition. “We cannot say that the 2030 target is ambitious. This is less than the objectives at the level of the United Nations and much less than the European Union. »
Quebec’s reduction target is currently 37.5% compared to the 1990 level. It was established in 2015 under the liberal government of Philippe Couillard, who then claimed to be showing “leadership”. And despite calls from the United Nations to revise the targets upwards, it has remained unchanged.
If Quebec reaches it, annual GHG emissions would be 53.3 million tonnes at the end of the decade. However, to hope to limit global warming to a viable threshold, i.e. 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, scientists consider it necessary to reduce GHG emissions by at least 43% compared to the 2019 level. This would be equivalent to emissions of 47.2 million tonnes for Quebec. The difference between the Quebec government’s target and that of science is equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.5 million cars.
GHG emissions per capita are also around nine tonnes per year, double the world average. To hope to meet the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement, namely limiting climate disruption to +1.5°C, emissions per citizen should not exceed two tonnes.
In short, from a global perspective, “it is much more difficult to say that Quebec is a leader. But it can and it must become so. We have everything to make it work,” says Alain Webster, who asserts Quebec’s duty to set an example. “If we can’t succeed, I wonder who can succeed. »
” Failure “
Holder of the Chair of Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, Pierre-Olivier Pineau recalls that “almost all states in the world claim to be leaders, using a measure that is favorable to them”.
He emphasizes that Quebec is indeed doing “a good job” in Canada, with the lowest per capita emissions, but also with the carbon market, even if it “has not been a significant driver of emissions reduction” .
Mr. Pineau adds that Quebec is a “leader” in terms of overconsumption of electricity. “We consume quantities of energy per capita roughly equivalent to the Canadian and American averages”, but also “nearly four times higher than the world average”.
Furthermore, he insists, “no transport or land use planning policy positions Quebec as a leader in the fight against climate change, in my opinion. Urban sprawl and the growth of the automobile fleet, both in number and size of vehicles, illustrate on the contrary the failure of recent and still current approaches in these critical areas of the fight against climate change.
Responsible for the Climate-Energy campaign at Greenpeace Canada, Patrick Bonin refutes the idea that Quebec is a climate leader. He recalls that, for the moment, the Legault government has announced measures which will allow it to achieve, at best, 60% of its GHG reduction target for 2030.
He also deplores a “lack of funding” for the development of public transport, the absence of taxation for energy-intensive vehicles and the absence of a strategy for adapting to the impacts of the climate crisis. Quebec municipalities are demanding at least $2 billion per year to deal with the impacts of global warming.