The Saskatchewan government has announced Made-in-Saskatchewan Climate Strategy that was heavy on a new buzzword, but light on hard targets or timelines.
As opposed to smokestacks on the cover, and aerial shot of four combines at harvest time reinforces the numerous mentions of agriculture as a carbon sink. In saying a federal carbon tax would be ineffective, it did not put forward any plans for a Saskatchewan carbon tax.听
The word 鈥渞esilience鈥� or 鈥渞esiliency鈥� appeared 41 times in the 12-page document, on each and every page, and often multiple times in the same paragraph. The end of the document included a grid which measures the 鈥淢odel of Saskatchewan Resilience Measure.鈥�
It covers five areas 鈥� natural systems, physical infrastructure, economic sustainability, community preparedness and human well 小蓝视频. Each of these areas has a weighting, resilience score and resilience target, all of which are 鈥渢bd,鈥� or to be determined.
鈥淭his is a model of how the provincial government intends to measure the resilience of Saskatchewan to the effects of climate change,鈥� the document states. 鈥淲e look forward to engaging with citizens to better refine the indicators we use to measure our resilience.
鈥淎t the same time, we hope the adoption and use of this model in Saskatchewan will broaden the national conversation about climate change, so that all of Canada is better prepared for the climatic, economic, and policy changes that we anticipate.
鈥淭here may also be some future changes that we cannot yet anticipate, and therefore we will need to periodically revisit this model to make sure that we continue to adapt our approaches as we learn more about the effects of climate change on Saskatchewan and the world.
鈥淭he next step is to move from strategy to action. The following milestones include time for consultation on the exact regulatory standards to be put in place, time to put the appropriate structures in place to implement the system, and planning to begin implementation on January 1, 2019.鈥�
After releasing this strategy for comment, the plan is to proclaim or amend enabling legislation, release additional documents for consultation, refine the plan, release regulations and guidance documents, establish reporting structures and begin implementation.
The document ranged wide enough to include bovine flatulence (鈥淎nother example is the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence at the University of Saskatchewan. Researchers there are developing differenc processing, local crops and feedstock compositions that reduce methane as well as use crop co-products that would otherwise have little value.鈥�), several points on highway culverts (鈥淟onger culvert lengths were failures are more likely to occur during flood events.鈥�) and building codes (鈥淲e will adopt the 2015 National Building Code, effective Jan. 1, 2018, with provisions that improve energy efficiency standards for houses and small buildings taking effect Jan. 1, 2019.鈥�)
The strategy also picked up on a new term, which found its way into government press releases the week before. Instead of 鈥渃arbon capture and storage (CCS),鈥� the new term is 鈥渃arbon capture use and storage (CCUS),鈥� with reference to the SaskPower Boundary Dam Unit 3 project.
While talking about SaskPower鈥檚 commitment to have 50 per cent of its power coming from renewable sources by 2030, the document says, 鈥淎n equivalency agreement with the federal government on electricity sector emissions from conventional coal-fired electrical generation in Saskatchewan will enable SaskPower to manage reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions across its entire fleet rather than on a unit-by-unit basis.
This agreement will give SaskPower increased flexibility in operating its existing coal units, helping to maintain low rates for SaskPower customers. At the same time, SaskPower will be able to focus investment into lower emitting and renewable energy projects and agreements. These will play a key role in enabling SaskPower to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.鈥�
To that end, it says, 鈥淲e will determine the viability of extending carbon capture use and storage technology to remaining coal power plants while continuing to work with partners on the potential application for CCUS technology globally.鈥�
For upstream oil and gas, it said, 鈥淪askatchewan will develop and pass greenhouse gas emissions regulations specifically suited to our upstream oil and gas industry. These will include reporting requirements and emission reduction targets.鈥�
Policies will be explored to create market demand for gas that is otherwise flared, which is expected to reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the upstream oil and gas industry by 40 to 45 per cent comparted to 2015 levels, a reduction of 4 to 4.5 million tonnes of CO2-eqivalent.
Large industrial emitters will have sector-specific output-base performance standards on facilities emitting more than 25,000 tones of CO2 equivalent per year. They will need to make improvements to reduce emissions intensity, purchase offsets, such as in agriculture or forestry, or purchase credits from other regulated entities. Other market mechanisms outlined in the Paris Agreement would also be allowed.
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