Nova Scotia should be proud of its work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but there’s much more to be done, an environmental group says.
“Over the last 10 or 15 years, Nova Scotia has done amazing work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing the green economy,” said Stephen Thomas, energy campaign co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre. “When you look at it from a percentage below 1990 levels, Nova Scotia has reduced emissions more than any other province. That’s the unique place that we find ourselves in.”
Thomas was responding Wednesday to a federalreport on greenhouse gas emissions that said Canada’s emissions decreased slightly
in 2016 compared to the previous year. The national dip in emissions was driven by a four-million-tonne drop in Alberta and slight decreases in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan, and all three territories.
The report noted that Nova Scotia has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent since 2005, about 7.6 megatonnes.
While Thomas lauded the province’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and promote a green economy, he worries about the lack of a long-term plan.
“In Nova Scotia, we are able to set targets and actually meet them,” he said. “The rest of Canada actually has some trouble doing that.
“But it’s not enough. . . . Although we’ve done this great work up until now, we don’t have any legislated greenhouse gas targets for the future. So we have no greenhouse gas targets past 2020 and that doesn’t set us on a good path for businesses and the province itself planning for the future.”
On the positive side, Thomas said more than 1,100 people work in the energy efficiency sector and the provincial renewable energy program has created more than 700 jobs.
“There are folks all over working on heat pumps and green buildings and everything in between, so we’re . . . creating jobs here that we really feel are the future and they’re here to stay.”
An Environment Department spokeswoman said Nova Scotia is developing a cap and trade program to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The federal government is requiring all cap and trade jurisdictions to establish a minimum 2030 provincewide target of 30 per cent below 2005 levels,” Chrissy Matheson said in an email. “Nova Scotia has already met this minimum target and has committed to continue to reduce GHGs below our business as usual. We will establish a 2030 GHG target as part of our work on the cap and trade program.”
