OTTAWA - THE Canadian government is failing to measure whether or not individual programs to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions are succeeding, as required by law, an audit revealed on Tuesday.
'We found that the government will be unable to determine actual emission reductions achieved for each of the measures in its plans,' Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan told a press conference.
He also said Environment Canada has 'overstated the expected reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for the 2008 to 2012 Kyoto Protocol period.' For example, some carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions will not be realized until after 2012, said his report.
Canada agreed under the international Kyoto Protocol to reduce CO2 emissions to 6.0 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, but emissions have instead increased.
In 2007, Ottawa outlined a new plan to cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases 20 per cent, based on 2006 levels, by 2020, saying the targets agreed to by the previous administration were unattainable.
The following year, it rolled out a series of measures aimed at curbing CO2 emissions.
Despite its stated objections to the Kyoto pact, the government is required by law to show each year how Canada will meet its Kyoto Protocol obligations.
But Mr Vaughan's report said Environment Canada 'could not demonstrate that the emission reductions... are based on adequate rationale.' 'While Environment Canada has a system in place to report on Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions, it has no system for reporting the actual emission reductions achieved from each measure in the annual climate change plan,' it said.
Environment Canada countered that such monitoring is technically unfeasible, not necessarily cost effective and that reductions are impossible to attribute to a specific measure.
The audit focused on 36 measures for reducing greenhouse gas emission, including incentives for renewable fuels and using renewable power from wind, solar or biomass, as well as capping fugitive emissions - small leaks from plant equipment, pipelines and storage facilities. -- AFP
