Nov. 25, 2009 - Issue #736: Poster Boys
News Roundup
QUEBEC GOES VERT
Quebec separated from Canada on at least one important issue this week:
greenhouse gases. Citing worries over trade relations with green-hungry
Europe, Premier Jean Charest announced that the province will reduce its
greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels.
The ambitious plan, which would give La Belle Province the lowest level of
emissions per person in all of North America, will focus on investment in
public transportation and regulation on automobile emissions similar to those
introduced in California to help reach the target, although it already has a
head-start: thanks to its reliance on hydropower, Quebec is already the
lowest greenhouse gas emitter in the country. Regardless, the plan does help
Quebec stick out from the rest of Canada: only Ontario and British Columbia
have similar emission targets, at 15 and 14 percent below 1990 levels by 2020
respectively, while the Canadian government has pledged to reduce the
country's emissions by three percent, facts the Quebec government said it
would trumpet at the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen.
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