Well, lookie here… mandatory limits on car emissions?
The Globe and Mail reports today that, according to sources, the federal Conservative government has plans to imposed mandatory vehicle-emission limits on auto manufacturers by 2010, after a voluntary deal put in place by the former Liberal government expires. The story says the Harper government will use California’s stringent regulations as a model, which on the surface is a good thing.
This is an encouraging step in the right direction, but what we don’t know yet is whether these emission restrictions will truly mirror those in California. Also, 2010 is still a far way off — presumably this shouldn’t be a shock to the auto makers if they are *voluntarily* working toward standards set by the Liberals. Why not target the new standards for, say, 2008?
The Conservatives appear quite worried that their lack of action on the environmental file (and Kyoto) could prevent them from getting a majority in the next election — or risk them a win altogether. It will be interesting to see whether tough talk now will lead to tough policy this fall.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
September 26th, 2006 at 9:55 am
A very good sign. Anyone, politician or businessman, who denies climate change or pursues policy with no regard to it, suddenly looks very backward indeed. Climate change is the new political and social reality.
Unfortunately, this is only window dressing if this gov’t continues to pursue exploitation of the tar sands. The atmosphere doesn’t recognize energy efficiency, only the absolute amount of greenhouse gas in the air.
Still, it is a good sign of the paradigm shift we’re undergoing.