• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska March 14, 2023
U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse March 14, 2023
$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’ March 14, 2023
UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’ March 9, 2023
Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions March 9, 2023
Next
Prev

Ontario Climate Plan Won’t Hit 2030 Target, Isn’t Based on ‘Sound Science’: Auditor General

December 6, 2019
Reading time: 5 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by The Energy Mix staff

Monkeyboy0076/Wikimedia Commons

Monkeyboy0076/Wikimedia Commons

6
SHARES
 

The climate plan introduced last year by the Doug Ford government in Ontario is not based on “sound evidence”, and the province is warming faster than the global average and off-course to meeting its 2030 emission reduction targets, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk concluded in her annual report issued Wednesday.

In a separate review released on the same day, Lysyk said the anti-carbon tax ads and stickers the government bought earlier this year added up to a C$4-million partisan exercise. Both reports landed in the same week that Ford faced criticism for appointing Harper-era federal finance minister and epic climate denier Joe Oliver to chair the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“Our audit concluded that the emission reduction estimates in the plan are not based on sound evidence or sufficient detail,” the annual report concluded. “In its current early state, the plan is not likely to achieve its proposed emission reduction target.”

While the province would need a 17.6-megatonne GHG reduction to align with Canada’s 2030 target, Lysyk found the current Ontario plan will only hit a threshold of 6.3 to 13 Mt. That assessment “confirms similar warnings from climate change activists, amid escalating warnings from the scientific community about the rapid pace of global warming,” the Star writes.

“They need to look at more ways to reduce emissions,” Lysyk warned. “Ontario is warming faster than the global average.” She found that the province’s projected emission reductions factored in renewable energy projects and a carbon cap-and-trade program the Progressive Conservative government cancelled last year, and anticipated a dramatic increase in annual electric vehicle sales—from 41,000 this year to 1.3 million in 2030—with no policy mechanisms to drive the shift.

Lysyk also reported that “some emissions reductions were double-counted and overstated” by being targeted in more than one provincial program.

Environment Minister Jeff Yurek insisted the plan is still evolving and the targets will be met. “We have a plan, the auditor general didn’t say it was terrible,” he said. “She said it needs to be tightened up. We totally agree with that. It was an ambitious plan we ran right out of the gates with.”

But NDP Opposition leader Andrea Horwath had her doubts. “We have a serious climate emergency in front of us,” she said. “We need a government that’s serious about setting stringent targets,” but “they are going backwards on so many of the strategies needed to meet [those] targets,” beginning with the decision to cancel signed contracts for 758 renewable energy projects across the province.

“If they cared about climate change, they’d actually have a plan that works,” said Green Party leader Mike Schreiner. 

“The Ford government is not only wasting our tax dollars sabotaging the federal government’s climate plan, the premier’s policies are actually sabotaging his own so-called climate plan,” he added. “They have the audacity to rely on electric vehicles to meet a big chunk of their emission targets while cutting all the programs that support electric vehicles.”

“The Auditor General’s Annual Report, released today, confirms that Ontario’s climate change plan falls apart under serious scrutiny,” Toronto-based Environmental Defence said in a release. “The current Ontario government isn’t just dragging their heels when it comes to fighting climate change. They are blocking real action. They fight solutions like carbon pricing in court, quote climate-denying websites, rely on technology that hasn’t been invented yet to reduce emissions, and propose weak plans that let big polluters off the hook. Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change are affecting a growing number of Ontarians.”

Lysyk also scorched Ford’s $4-million propaganda campaign against the federal carbon tax, CBC reports. The government declined to reveal the cost of the program when the ads began airing last spring, ahead of the October 22 federal election, but Lysyk’s review of government advertising unearthed the number.

“A primary objective of this campaign was to foster a negative impression of the federal government and its carbon pricing policy,” she wrote. “It aimed to foster a positive impression of the provincial governing party by saying that Ontario has a ‘better’ plan for the environment.”

Earlier in the week, the NDP took aim at IESO Chair Oliver, after the Star resurrected his bizarre contention earlier this year that Canada will benefit from climate change. “To suggest, somehow, that Canada is going to benefit from global warming is the height of insanity. And it is a very, very dangerous opinion to have,” Horwath said Monday. “If he was being flip, shame on him, because this is nothing to joke about.”

The IESO declined to defend its chair’s position, the Star reported. The agency said it “has no comment on personal views expressed by Mr. Oliver”, adding that “addressing non-traditional threats to grid reliability such as climate change and cyber-attacks is part of the IESO’s corporate strategy to ensure the reliability of Ontario’s electricity system.”

“I spoke out against appointing a climate denier into that position in the first place and now it’s coming back to bite the government,” Schreiner said Tuesday. “It’s unacceptable that we have a minister of energy reading climate denial blogs and appointing somebody to be head regulator of our electricity system who doesn’t seem to believe in climate change either, who even tries to spout rhetoric that climate change can be good for Canada. Tell that to the people who are experiencing floods, fires, ice storms, and other extreme weather events.”

“They’re not serious about climate change,” agreed interim Liberal leader John Fraser. “This is just symptomatic of a larger problem inside the government. I want to see who the next denier is going to be. There’s got to be another one in there.”



in Canada, Community Climate Finance, Energy Politics, Ontario, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr
Oil & Gas

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr
Community Climate Finance

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
96
EcoAnalytics
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Behrat/Wikimedia Commons

Hawaii Firm Turns Home Water Heaters into Grid Batteries

March 14, 2023
292
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
134
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
96
Rebecca Bollwitt/flickr

Fossils Stay ‘Oily’, Gibsons Sues Big Oil, U.S. Clean Energy Booms, EU Pushes Fossil Phaseout, and Fukushima Disaster was ‘No Accident’

March 14, 2023
70
EcoAnalytics

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69
U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64

Recent Posts

Raysonho/wikimedia commons

Purolator Pledges $1B to Electrify Last-Mile Delivery

March 14, 2023
47
United Nations

UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’

March 10, 2023
89
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions

March 10, 2023
171
jasonwoodhead23/flickr

First Nation Scorches Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Over Toxic Leak

March 8, 2023
362
MarcusObal/wikimedia commons

No Climate Risk Targets for Banks, New Guides for Green Finance as 2 Federal Agencies Issue New Rules

March 8, 2023
233
FMSC/Flickr

Millions Face Food Insecurity as Horn of Africa Braces for Worst Drought Ever

March 8, 2023
241
Next Post
Thunberg arrives Madrid COP 25 bossito:Twitter

‘Two Worlds Collide’ as Urgent Street Protests Meet Slow, Deliberate COP Negotiations

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}