Canada is slowly rolling towards low-carbon transport

Last year, the federal government recognized climate change as an "emergency," yet one doesn’t get much of a sense of urgency when reviewing the government’s efforts to curtail greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector. While every other sector of Canada’s economy has seen emissions reductions since 2005, emissions from transport have grown substantially over this time (by +14 per cent). It is the transport sector that is most responsible for keeping Canada from meeting its international commitments under the Paris Agreement. If Canada wants to get serious about climate change, it needs to amp up on ambition, investment, and regulatory action within the transport sector specifically. True, the government has enacted some tools to help manage emissions growth in the transport sector—perhaps the most promising of these is the proposed clean fuel standard, which is supposed to be rolled out before the end of this year, and requires fuel suppliers to reduce the emissions intensity of the fuels they sell. Yet these tools, while helpful, amount to far too little as they remain mired by incrementalism and place too much faith in the power of market forces. Here are four main areas where the government needs to step up in a way that complements the clean fuel standard and carbon taxes through additional regulations and investments: Place mandatory zero-emission vehicle production targets on big auto. First off, it is time for Canada to take a more aggressive regulatory approach to the big car companies. One of the main drivers of transport emissions growth in Canada is an increasing number of light-duty passenger trucks. But we need to ask, if we’re facing a climate emergency why are car companies allowed to produce and sell conventional gas-burning vehicles in the first place, when hybrid and fully electric models offer perfectly suitable alternatives? The federal government is currently aiming for only 10 per cent of the light-duty vehicle sales per year to be electric by 2025. While other jurisdictions like California or Norway have already met that threshold and implemented zero-emissions vehicle mandates, Canada is wasting precious time and cowing to pressure from the auto sector to delay ambitious action. Readers may recall that the government of Canada bailed out the auto sector to the tune of billions of dollars in 2008; it then wrote off much of the outstanding loans a decade later—why does it not seek to use that as leverage to make more ambitious demands from vehicle producers? Develop a strategy for long-distance transport. Canada is a big country, and right now there are very few options for low-carbon transport for long-distance intercity travel. Not only are long-distance trains outside of the Quebec-Windsor corridor more polluting on a per passenger basis than flying, but even within the corridor VIA Rail’s environmental performance is orders of magnitude worse than the international average rail emissions factors. Meanwhile, long distance coach bus services have been decimated in recent years, and plummeting demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has placed this sub-sector on life support. In short, the situation is critical, as there is almost no way to travel between urban areas in Canada without generating a very large carbon footprint. Governments ought to intervene and invest in supporting low-carbon options for long distance travel, whether it’s supporting the development of alternative low-carbon fuels, buying new rolling stock and improving VIA’s access to rail infrastructure, or supporting regional projects aiming to connect Canada’s largest cities with both proven and experimental low-carbon transport technologies. Make low-carbon urban transit part of the COVID-recovery. In late 2019, the newly formed Trudeau government took a step forward in supporting the development of low-carbon urban transit infrastructure, in part by supporting the procurement of electric buses and urban rail projects. However, policy-makers must recognize just how significant the COVID-19 pandemic has been in terms of decimating urban transit operators. Like intercity coach services, urban transit “is in grave danger of entering a death spiral” in Canada (as Marco D’Angelo of the Canadian Urban Transit Association recently put it). If the climate emergency is to be addressed within the transport sector, the government will have to redouble its financial commitments to urban transit—there is simply no way around this. The post-COVID recovery is the perfect opportunity to make those ambitious investments, which tend to pay dividends in the long run, through a long list of social, economic, and environmental benefits. Develop manufacturing capacity in low-carbon transport supply chains. The Canadian government could be doing much more to facilitate the transition from R&D in nascent low-carbon industries through to actual manufacturing. Be it in batteries, ‘green’ or ‘blue’ hydrogen fuel production, third-generation biofuels, etc., there is tremendous potential for Canada to be a global leader in provisioning these supply chains. But government has a crucial role to play in helping to get from the R&D phase to manufacturing. Electric vehicle batteries offer a poignant example: a hodgepodge of small targeted investments hasn’t resulted in any new industrial capacity, leaving experts to demand “bold and comprehensive action” from the federal government. Canada is rolling towards low carbon transport at a snail’s pace. The incremental and mostly market-based mechanisms introduced thus far have yet to show dividends. If the Government of Canada truly believes that climate change present a genuine emergency—and there’s good reason to believe so—then it needs to step up ambition and put the pedal to the metal. Ryan Katz-Rosene is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Political Studies, and the president of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada. The Hill Times

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Canada is slowly rolling towards low-carbon transport

If Canada wants to get serious about climate change, it needs to amp up on ambition, investment, and regulatory action within the transport sector specifically.

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