Trucking Alliance to Government: Canada Should Not Ratify Kyoto

September 25, 2002

CTA joins national business lobby for Made-in-Canada approach to climate change

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has joined the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions (CCRES), a newly formed group comprising many of the country’s other leading business associations. The coalition will tell the federal and provincial governments that while it is committed to working with government to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the business community believes the Kyoto Protocol, which the Prime Minister has indicated he may ratify before the end of 2002, is the wrong approach to achieving this vital task. Instead, it urges government to consider a “Made-in-Canada” alternative to Kyoto that will, among other things:

• Combine immediate actions with a more realistic time frame – The Kyoto Protocol requires Canada to reduce its emissions to 6% below 1990 levels, which is between 25-30% below current levels. This means lower industrial production and economic output; i.e., shrinking the economy instead of growing it.
• Protect the environment – Only GHG emissions are targeted under the Kyoto Protocol. CTA prefers a solution that also addresses pollutants like sulphur and nitrogen oxides, which are the main components of smog and acid rain.
• Protect Canadian jobs – Economic growth means job growth. Yet a figure widely used for expected GDP loss to Canada under the Kyoto Protocol is 1.9% per annum according to recent government estimates. This translates into nearly $30 billion taken out of the Canadian economy by 2010.
• Protect Canada’s competitive position as a trading nation – The Kyoto Protocol does not apply to all countries in the world. Most specifically, Mexico is not a signatory to the agreement and the US has announced that it will not ratify Kyoto citing economic concerns.
• Keep capital in Canada to invest in new environmental technologies – Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada will be required to buy emissions “credits” from other countries in order to meet Kyoto targets. Our solution would see this money stay in Canada to be invested in new energy, emissions and environmental technologies as the key to sustainable development.
• Negotiate agreements with specific economic sectors – Under the made-in-Canada approach being recommended, emissions performance targets would be mutually agreed on by all stakeholders, including the federal and provincial governments, and the industries impacted.

According to Environment Canada, emissions of GHG from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (commercial trucks & buses, urban & public utilities vehicles) account for about 5% of Canadian greenhouse gas inventory (1999 figures). David Bradley, CEO of the trucking alliance and member of the Federal Transportation Table on Climate Change, says “it is an economic and environmental imperative that the Government of Canada look to develop a Canadian approach to climate change, that takes full account of Canadian energy use and economic circumstances.”

“It would be folly to believe that GHG levels in Canada can be reduced by 30% over the next decade, without visiting severe hardship on the economy and jobs,” Bradley says. “In addition, some of our political leaders seem to think that Kyoto will solve the problem of smog in our cities. It will not. Smog and climate change are distinctly different problems caused by different emissions, requiring different action. The federal health department has declared that the two main GHG’s generated from diesel fuel – carbon dioxide and methane – do not directly cause air pollution.”

“The trucking industry is in a Catch-22. The only solution to climate change is to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Yet, the federal government has adopted new smog-reducing standards for truck diesel fuel and truck engines that will come with a price – lower fuel efficiency.”

The CCRES will kick off a national publicity campaign with a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday September 26^th and a full page advertisement in the National Post.