Prime Minister Trudeau recently attended a state dinner held in his honour at the White House, representing the 10th time President Obama has honoured a head of state during his two terms as President. It’s the first time in 19 years that a Canadian Prime Minister has been the subject of such an honour.
While the pomp and circumstance along with the guest list for the dinner garnered much of the media attention, it was the work done earlier in the day that culminated in the release of the US-Canada Joint Declaration on Climate, Energy and Arctic Leadership.
This has committed both countries to reducing methane emissions which have a Global Warming Potential (GWP) between 26 and 38 times that of carbon dioxide — albeit over shorter lifespan than CO2 — by 40-45 per cent from 2012 levels by 2025.
Additional commitments were also made by both leaders to reduce the use and emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which have GWP thousands of times that of CO2.
The environment and the continued commitment to take action on climate change represent a continued evolution of the shared perspective of both the Prime Minister and the President, who hold the view that climate change is the most pressing issue of our time.
There are other better and more creative ways of reducing GHG emissions from the light duty vehicles sector as opposed to relying on relatively scant sales of EVs to achieve those reductions
Both leaders reaffirmed their commitments to implement their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) declared at the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Paris last December, otherwise known as the 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP21).
Reflecting the Prime Minister’s election platform, both leaders have also committed to work together to support robust implementation of the carbon markets-related provisions of the Paris Agreement.
Putting a price on carbon was also the theme of the First Minister’s Meeting held in Vancouver the week before the President’s State Dinner, in conjunction with the GLOBE Leadership Summit
for Sustainable Business.
Trudeau had agreed to assemble a meeting of the First Ministers within 100 days of the climate change meetings in Paris to secure a broad agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while building Canada’s clean economy.
While the Prime Minister fell short of his goal of obtaining a minimum national price on carbon, he did succeed in getting all provinces and territories to sign off on the Vancouver Declaration.
This had all leaders agree to carbon pricing mechanisms adapted to each province’s and territory’s specific circumstances, as well as elevating the level of ambition for measures to be taken that would reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon pricing and the urgency of climate change has been an undercurrent running through everything the Trudeau government has done.
The Canadian provinces were included amongst the parties to the negotiations in Paris, underscoring the important contribution that sub-national jurisdictions can make in the fight against climate change.
British Columbia used the background of CoP21 to announce it was joining the International Zero Emission Vehicle Alliance, while Ontario committed $20-million to the introduction of fast charging stations for electric vehicles.
Not to be outdone, Québec reaffirmed its commitment to introduce an ill-advised Zero Emission Vehicle mandate during the Paris meetings as well.
The challenge for the automotive industry is that with such a focus, attention is inevitably brought to bear on the transportation sector.
In Canada, transportation is responsible for 28 per cent of total GHG emissions. While most people think only of cars and trucks, in reality, light duty vehicles are responsible for 12 per cent of total GHG emissions.
That’s not to minimize the impact of products the automotive industry puts on Canadian roads, but rather to put it into proper perspective.
When you look at the provincial numbers, the role of transportation and the light duty vehicle sector as components of overall GHG emissions varies significantly, depending on the province.
In Quebec, transportation is responsible for about 44 per cent of all GHG emissions, with on-road light duty vehicles being responsible for about 22 per cent. That’s almost double the representative share of Canadian emissions.
Similarly in Ontario, emissions from light-duty vehicles are about 19 per cent of total emissions, while light-duty vehicles in British Columbia are responsible for about 14 per cent of total emissions.
For each of these three provinces, efforts have been made to reduce GHG emissions from light duty vehicles through the introduction of incentive programs to offset the higher purchase price of EVs.
Just recently, the incentive programs in both Ontario and British Columbia were revised.
Ontario significantly increased the total incentive available from $8,500 to a maximum of $14,000, while also instituting a series of caveats and limitations on the incentive based MSRP.
The maximum incentive in Ontario can be no more than 30 per cent of the MSRP. Eligible vehicles above $75,000 receive a maximum incentive of $3,000 while eligible vehicles above $150,000 receive no incentive.
British Columbia renewed its funding for the Clean Energy Vehicle incentive program for this year while also instituting an MSRP cap of $77,000, over which no incentive would be applicable.
An additional component of British Columbia’s announcement was the ability of EV purchasers to utilize HOV lanes, similar to what Ontario has allowed for some time.
Québec has been a leader in Canada’s EVs sales, responsible for about 46 per cent since such vehicles were first made available in the Canadian market five years ago.
The province offers incentives of up to $8,000 towards the purchase of an EV, and funds to offset the purchase cost of a charging station.
The electrification of transportation has greater significance in Québec, given its abundance of clean hydro-electricity and its desire to reduce its dependency on imported oil.
Hydro Québec has undertaken great efforts to work towards building out the charging infrastructure, and while not there yet, it plans to have 800 charging stations in place, including 60 fast charging units, by the end of this year.
EV sales will be an important component for all automakers as they continue to introduce advanced technologies to meet the stringent 2017-2025 GHG emissions regulations.
That said, EVs alone are not going to significantly reduce GHG emissions given there are currently just under 18,500 on Canadian roads.
There are other better and more creative ways of reducing GHG emissions from the light duty vehicles sector as opposed to relying on relatively scant sales of EVs to achieve those reductions.
Governments looking for significant GHG emissions reductions from personal transportation need to be prepared to make unpopular choices that adversely impact vehicle purchasers and vehicle users (i.e. voters) for real emissions reductions.
Anything less is playing at the margins.
