The Province of Ontario
Province of Ontario
Population: 12.2 million (2006)
GHG Emissions: 190 MtCO2e (2006)
Targets/Goals
On June 18, 2007, Ontario announced a set of ambitious but realistic greenhouse targets:
- The province released a climate change action plan in June 2007, pledging a 6% reduction in emissions by 2014, 15% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The Climate Change Secretariat was created in 2008 to drive results on the action plan and to produce its annual report. By 2009 the province had already reduced its carbon emission levels to approximately 1990 levels.
- In 2009, the Province put in place the legal framework for a carbon cap-and-trade system, and now requires organizations and facilities to report their carbon emissions. From 2012, this reporting must be externally accredited.
- The Province has attracted C$16 billion of private green investment by advancing low carbon policies and funding research and development in clean technology through the Ontario New Technology Fund and the Ontario Network of Excellence (a reduction of GHGs to 6% below 1990 levels by 2014, or 61 Mt, a reduction of GHGs to 15% below 1990 levels by 2020, or 99 Mt and a reduction of GHGs to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050)
- The province has also established electricity-related targets that include: doubling the installed capacity of renewable energy to 15,700 MW by 2025, increasing electricity conservation to 6,300 MW by 2025; 2,700 MW by 2010 and installing 100,000 solar roof systems in homes across Ontario.
Top Actions
Energy Efficiency
- Ontario's 2006 Building Code introduced energy-efficiency
requirements that, over the next seven years, will save enough
energy to power 380,000 homes and will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road.
- Ontario's CAD$20 million (US$16 million) Municipal Eco
Challenge Fund includes CAD$14 million (US$11 million) to make
municipal buildings more energy efficient. The fund's remaining
CAD$6 million (US$4.8 million) is providing municipalities with
training, tools and technical support, in collaboration with the
Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Canada Green
Building Council. The grant program was announced in conjunction
with a CAD$200 million (US$162 million) loan program for municipal
projects that reduce GHG emissions.
- Banning the sale of inefficient light bulbs by 2012 . If
passed, new regulatory efficiency standards for light bulbs will be
on average about 40% higher than today's standard
units.
- Ontario is investing CAD$122 million (US$99 million) in
Ontario's Home Energy Audit and Retrofit Program which provides up
to CAD$5,000 (US$4,000) to help homeowners invest in qualified home
energy improvements and related equipment.
- Ontario is providing sales tax exemptions on eligible EnergyStar® household appliances and light bulbs.
Renewable Energy
- Ontarios Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) makes
it easier and more cost-effective for businesses and entrepreneurs
to sell renewable power to the grid by setting a fixed price for
small generation projects that use renewable energy. This
includes contracts for more than 500 MW of solar power, one of the
largest commitments in North America.
- In 2003, there were only ten wind turbines in operation in
Ontario, with a total capacity of 15 MW. By the fall of 2009, it is
expected that there will be 670 turbines operating in Ontario, with
a total potential output of more than 1,100 MW.
- Ontario is also adding more clean energy sources, with a standard offer for new, natural gas-fired combined-cycle and for co-generation (combined heat and power electricity production) power. The government is removing other barriers that prevent more widespread use of co-generation.
Transportation
- By 2010, the government will have provided over CAD$1.6 billion
(US$1.3 billion) in gasoline tax funding to Ontario municipalities
for their local transit priorities. This program gives
municipalities a dependable and stable source of financing for
their public transit initiatives.
- MoveOntario 2020 is a rapid transit action plan for the Greater
Toronto and Hamilton Area (one of the largest urban areas in
Canada). Through MoveOntario 2020, the province will provide
CAD$11.5-billion (US$9.3 billion) of a total CAD$17.5-billion
(US$14 billion) in funding for 902 kilometres of new or improved
rapid transit the largest public transit initiative in the
provinces history.
- Ontario is committed to developing a low carbon fuel standard that will require carbon emissions from transportation fuels to decrease 10% by 2020 the equivalent of removing 700,000 cars from the roads.
Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use Policy
- Implementing Ontarios Far North Planning Initiative which will
protect at least 225,000 square kilometers of the Far North Boreal
region, and give priority protection to key ecological features
such as endangered species habitat. Ontario will also partner
with Manitoba to establish and protect an Inter-provincial
Wilderness Area covering more than 94,000 square kilometers.
- In 2007, the government launched a three-year, CAD$9-million
(US$7.3 million) program to assist funding 20 to 25 agriculture and
agri-food biogas systems that convert agriculture and food-based
products and by-products into renewable energy. The programs
popularity led to additional funding of CAD$2 million (US$1.6
million) during the first quarter of 2008. A biogas system that
uses manure from 250 cows could result in 400 fewer tonnes of
greenhouse gases and 550 additional megawatt-hours of power
production every year.
- The government will work with private landowners and community groups to plant 50 million trees on private and public lands in southern Ontario by 2020. Planting 50 million trees on 25,000 hectares (nearly 62,000 acres) of private and public land by 2020 will remove from the atmosphere by 2054 about 3.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Ontario will also plant 100,000 trees in cities and urban areas by 2010.
Waste Management
- The government filed a regulation to phase-in new requirements for methane collection and capture in local landfills, the source of 3% of Ontarios human-made greenhouse gas emissions in 2006. The landfill owners can either burn off the methane, reducing its global warming potential by 95%, or use it to generate electricity to sell to the grid. When these new rules are combined with the systems already in place, Ontario landfills will be reducing GHG emissions by over four million tons per year.
Promoting Low Carbon Technology
- The government launched, in 2008, the CAD$1.15 billion (US$930
million) Next Generation of Jobs Fund geared towards innovation,
including the development and commercial sale of clean cars, clean
fuels and clean technologies in Ontario.
- Because coal-fired electricity is one of the provinces most significant sources of GHG emissions, Ontario will cease to burn coal at its four remaining coal-fired generating stations by the end of 2014. Ontario was the first jurisdiction in North America with a regulation in place to eliminate coal-fired power. Coal replacement represents a reduction in GHG emissions of up to 30 megatons - the single largest GHG reduction initiative in Canada.
Market-Based Mechanisms/Fiscal Measures
- Ontario joined the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) in the
summer of 2008. The WCI is a collaboration of seven US governors
and four Canadian Premiers with the objective of reducing GHG
emissions 15% below 2005 levels by 2020 and developing
multi-sector, market-based mechanisms including a regional cap and
trade program to achieve that goal.
- Ontario signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Quebec on
June 2, 2008 to collaborate on a regional cap-and-trade system for
GHGs that could be implemented as early as January 1, 2010.
The two provinces will work together to make their approach
compatible with other cap-and-trade systems that are emerging in
North America and around the world.
- Ontario also participates as an observer in other GHG cap-and-trade initiatives including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (MGA). RGGI is a state-level strategic partnership based in the US, with a mandate to reduce GHGs from the electricity sector. MGA is a state and provincial initiative to develop a regional strategy to achieve energy security and reduce GHG emissions.