New Alberta climate-change plans include carbon taxes for individual Albertans.

New Alberta climate-change plans include carbon taxes for individual Albertans. (NAPO).

While the plan doesn’t set greenhouse gas emission targets with dates, the entire climate-change policy puts Alberta on track to reduce emissions by approximately 20 megatonnes in 2020 compared to what would be the case if no changes were made, and 50 megatonnes by 2030.

It will also cut methane emissions from flaring and leakage by 45 per cent from 2014 levels by 2025. Methane is roughly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas.

The plan was hailed by energy and environmental leaders as a “game changer” that will make Alberta a global leader in fighting climate change. But it will also require Albertans to pay 4.7-cents more per litre of gas at the pumps in 2017, and 5.5 cents more per litre of diesel, plus an extra $320 to heat their homes in 2017, rising to $470 by 2018. 

The $3 billion raised by these carbon taxes won’t go into government coffers, but will go back to Albertans through a rebate program and by building green infrastructure and public transit, the premier said.

— Alberta will phase out all pollution created by burning coal by 2030, and transition to more renewable energy and natural-gas generation. The province promises the plan will provide reasonable electricity prices for consumers and businesses.

— Within the next months, the government will set up a facilitator and negotiator to work with coal-plant operators to figure out how best to move forward, since the province’s 18 coal-fired electricity plants currently create 55 per cent of the province’s electricity.

— Two-thirds of coal-generated electricity will be replaced by renewables, mostly wind power.

— Renewable-energy sources will comprise up to 30 per cent of Alberta’s electricity production by 2030.

“Obviously, if I was the owner of a coal company, I would prefer that this announcement hadn’t been made, but we’re very committed to working with them in a collaborative way to ensure that they do not unduly bear the burden of the benefits that all Albertans will enjoy as a result of us phasing out coal,” Premier Rachel Notley said.

Meanwhile......In Germany

Coal resurgence darkens Germans’ green image

Germany generated 44 per cent of its electricity from coal last year, more than any other EU member state. That compares with 26 per cent from renewables and 16 per cent from its eight remaining nuclear plants.

Ms Merkel’s government had not reckoned with the power of the coal lobby. Plans this year to slap a levy on emissions from the dirtiest plants powered by lignite had to be abandoned after they met opposition from industry, unions and local politicians. This coalition, led by RWE, Germany’s second biggest power provider and the operator of most of the country’s lignite plants, said the levy would threaten 100,000 jobs in industrial regions and would push up costs to industry and consumers.

Meanwhile......In China.

China is building one coal-fired power plant every 7 to 10 days, while Japan plans to build 43 coal-fired power projects to replace its shuttered nuclear units.

Japan is financing $1 billion in loans for coal-fired plants in Indonesia and $630 million in loans for coal-fired plants in India and Bangladesh.[iii]

Japan is using climate finance funds for the projects since these new coal-fired plants are less polluting than older coal-fired plants and therefore qualify as clean energy. Japan believes that the promotion of high-efficiency coal-fired power plants is one of the “realistic, pragmatic and effective approaches” to deal with climate change.

China added 39 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in 2014 — 3 gigawatts more than it added in 2013. That is equivalent to three 1,000 megawatt units every four weeks.[v] At the peak, from 2005 through 2011, China added about two 600-megawatt coal plants a week, for 7 straight years.

And, China is expected to add the equivalent of a new 600-megawatt plant every 10 days for the next 10 years. These new coal plants that China is constructing are more efficient and cleaner than their old coal-fired plants.[vi]

China consumes more than 4 billion tons of coal each year, compared to less than 1 billion tons in the United States and 600 million tons in the European Union. China surpassed the United States to become the largest global carbon dioxide emitter in 2007, and it is on track to double annual U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 2017. By 2040, China’s coal power fleet is expected to be 50 percent larger than it is today and these power plants typically operate for 40 years or more.[vii] Hmmmm.......I'm sure these failed now 'Canadian liberal' policies will stop 'Global warming' (Sarc).

Related: 

“It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.” Source.