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Plan for Climate Change

By Premier Lorne Calvert

Good afternoon colleagues, members of the press, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for joining Minister Nilson, Minister Sonntag and me this afternoon for the unveiling of the Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan.

This is an important day in our province’s history because the plan we are releasing today contains within it our government’s response to the challenge widely regarded as the greatest “clear and present danger” facing our planet – that of climate change.

The plan enumerates Saskatchewan’s major responsibilities with regard to climate change and outlines specific commitments to help reduce the environmental footprint made by our industries, our communities and our citizenry.

As an energy strategy, this plan offers a way ahead for our economy so that we may continue as a province that is both green and prosperous.

That the document itself should have a green and prosperous emphasis is no accident.

This document follows naturally from two earlier plans put forth by our government: our Green Strategy and the Saskatchewan Action Plan for the Economy.

In both those plans, we indicated that our social progress and our economic progress are inextricably linked.

And we indicated that the environment and the economy are not two solitudes: that protection of our environment can indeed co-exist with, and proceed through, the growth of our economy.

Let me quickly review our current situation as well as our challenges and opportunities.

Saskatchewan is an energy powerhouse, with the most diverse primary energy resource base in the country. That’s the message we’ve been taking across the country and to international audiences as well.

Our non-renewable resource strength has spawned dramatic growth in our economy since the early Nineties but development of those resources has come at an environmental cost, an increase in our province’s greenhouse gas emissions of more than 60 per cent since 1990.

That statistic reflects a hard reality faced by all fossil fuel producing jurisdictions. Increased production of greenhouse gases cannot continue. Under our plan, it won’t.

Our Energy and Climate Change Plan has multiple commitments, but there are three overarching targets to which I would like to draw specific attention.

First, while continuing to grow the Saskatchewan economy, we will stabilize the absolute level of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.

Second, we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita by 2020. That’s a 32 per cent reduction from current levels, and friends, it is by far the largest per capita emissions target established anywhere in Canada.

And third, we commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent from current levels by 2050. That’s a reduction of 55 tonnes per capita, again the most ambitious target in Canada.

This plan also commits us to develop a province-wide climate change adaptation strategy.

And it also commits that new and replacement electricity generation facilities established by SaskPower will be emissions free, making SaskPower an emissions-free utility by 2040.

As Minster Nilson indicated, today marks the one year anniversary of the Centennial Wind Power Project so that work is already well underway.

Friends, our plan contains five components or emission reductions “wedges” that will take us from where our emissions would have gone, if left unchecked, down to where we want them to be in 2050.

These wedges include:
Conservation and efficiency measures by industry, business and homeowners;

Increased use of renewable energy, through such sources as wind, solar power and hydrogen, and through further development of our ethanol and biodiesel resources;

Carbon dioxide capture and storage in our oil and gas industry and in our electricity sector;

Reduction of methane and other emissions in our oil and gas industry and methane and nitrous oxide emissions in our agriculture industry; and

Creation of more natural carbon sinks in our forests and our soils.
Each of these five wedges will bring that unchecked trend line down. Taken together, they will move that line and our emissions down to 80 per cent below our current levels.

Friends, in our current Provincial Budget we have allocated $48 million to support climate change initiatives which will achieve these emission reductions.

Toward these goals, our Crown corporations will spend an additional $49 million.

And then there is the $44.4 million set aside for Saskatchewan in the new federal trust fund to support provincial emission reduction projects over three years.

Today, I am announcing that we will provide an additional $44.4 million of provincial monies over the next three years to fund similar projects.

However, as I make that commitment I must state that in my view, the federal contribution does not reflect Saskatchewan’s challenges and opportunities.

Consider that our greenhouse gas emissions are slightly higher than British Columbia’s, and yet that province is getting nearly $200 million from the trust fund.

We are being asked to address nine per cent of this Canadian problem with three per cent of the funding. That’s not equitable. Nor is it responsible.

Now I know there are those who will say that Saskatchewan itself is not moving fast enough or aggressively enough – that we’re not meeting some earlier targets established under Kyoto.

I would respond by saying that our plan represents a substantial commitment and major leadership on climate change.

Under this plan we may continue our economic growth while “pulling above our weight” with respect to the challenges posed by climate change.

Pulling above our weight is a proud Saskatchewan tradition. We have demonstrated it for decades with economic and social policy that has led Canada and North America. We are now embracing the opportunity to demonstrate leadership on an issue that affects the entire planet.

That Saskatchewan is well suited to leadership on climate change is recognized both at home and abroad.

Just after Earth Day, we had the pleasure of welcoming the world’s leading environmental spokesperson, former American Vice-President Al Gore to our province to deliver his inspirational presentation, “An Inconvenient Truth”.

In just a few years Mr. Gore has engaged citizens of the world on the issue of climate change like no one else before him.

In the book based on his presentation, Mr. Gore wonders what future generations will think of us if we don’t take steps now to clean up our planet. What will they ask if we fail in our stewardship of Mother Earth?

He says, and I quote, “We can answer their questions now by our actions, not merely with our promises. In the process, we can choose a future for which our children will thank us.”

That’s right. We have it within our power to choose a future in which we are not condemned by history for inaction and selfishness but rather given credit and, yes, even thanked for recognizing our mistakes, and mistakes past, and for having the wisdom and the courage to change.

Obviously friends, meeting the commitments we’ve outlined here today will be a challenge.

It will require a significant contribution from all sectors of our society and our economy. But the cost of doing nothing is incalculable. If we are to bestow any legacy at all, it must begin with this.

We must have the wisdom to clearly discern the challenges we face, and the courage not simply to react but to lead.

In Saskatchewan, I know we can do it.

Thank you.