The Quebec government may have nabbed some early headlines by tipping the centrepiece of its Green Economy Plan, a 2035 phaseout of internal combustion vehicle sales. But once the full strategy was released Monday, climate analysts and campaigners quickly concluded that it won’t meet the province’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Over the course of the five-year plan, most of the C$6.7 billion in the provincial announcement will be devoted to subsidizing electric vehicle purchases, CBC reports. But “climate change experts and environmental activists say that won’t be enough to put the province on track to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. They say more money should be invested in public transit and climate change mitigation.”
While the 29-megatonne reduction “remains Quebec’s stated goal, the plan only identifies a series of measures that will result in a reduction of 12.4 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030, according to the government’s own accounting,” the national broadcaster adds in a separate dispatch. “The 17.4-million-tonne difference will be achieved through unspecified technological advancements and a contribution from the federal government, also unspecified.”
“By itself the plan won’t be enough to address the challenges presented by the climate crisis,” Équiterre agreed.
Source: Quebec Green Plan Falls Far Short of 2030 Carbon Target, Analysts Say – The Energy Mix