The Canadian government unveiled its new, finalized Clean Electricity Revenue (CER) regulations on Tuesday. The regulations aim to create a net-zero CO2 electricity grid by 2050 and effectively mark the end of the previous goal of a net-neutral grid by 2035.
Change of plans
Ottawa has rolled back its original goal after feedback from some provinces and energy industry participants who said the draft CER regulations would make Canada’s electricity supply less reliable, more expensive and risk creating idle assets, government officials said in a briefing.
Canada already generates 85% of its electricity from clean sources such as hydropower, wind and solar, but less ambitious regulations mean it will be harder for the country to meet its climate goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 45-50% below 2005 levels by 2035.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve scaled back on the ambition in terms of decarbonizing the grid, but we’ve learned through the consultations that there was a need for more flexibility,” Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in an interview.
The finalized regulations will reduce nearly 181 megatons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions from the grid between 2024 and 2050, compared to the draft regulations’ goal of reducing 342 megatons by mid-century.
The previous target of limiting emissions from each power plant to 30 tons of carbon per gigawatt hour has been revised to a higher limit of 65 tons per gigawatt hour.
Power plants will also be able to emit an additional 35 tons per gigawatt hour if they use emissions offsets.
