Federal government establishes 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan

Carbon pricing

• Recommitting to the previously announced $15/tonne annual increase in the backstop carbon price under the Greenhous Gas Pollution Pricing Act starting in 2023, with a target level of $170/tonne by 2030.  
• Enhancing long-term carbon price certainty, such as through carbon contracts for differences between the government and low-carbon project investors that mitigate risk of future carbon price levels.
• Developing a Federal GHG Offset System that allows the generation of credits to encourage voluntary project activities that reduce GHG emissions or remove them from the atmosphere.
• Funding the deployment of clean technology to decarbonize industrial sectors (through the Decarbonization Incentive Program) and production and delivery of clean electricity (through the Future Electricity Fund).

Clean fuels

• Exploring the feasibility of a bioenergy strategy to use agricultural, forestry and municipal waste resources to generate energy.
• Consulting on a more stringent Clean Fuel Regulation, to decrease the carbon intensity of liquid fossil fuels by 15% below 2016 levels by 2030.

Low Carbon Economy Fund

• Expanding the Low Carbon Economy Fund through a $2.2-billion recapitalization, to further climate actions from provinces and territories, municipalities, universities, colleges, schools, hospitals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations and Indigenous communities and organizations.

Reducing methane

• Releasing a plan in 2022 to reduce methane emissions across the economy.

Electricity

• Requiring net-zero electricity by 2035 through a Clean Electricity Standard, for which a discussion paper has been released and consultation has been initiated with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners.
• Expanding non-emitting energy deployment and development, including through additional investments in renewable electricity and grid modernization projects ($600 million) and predevelopment work for large clean electricity projects ($250 million).
• Helping connect regions with clean power, including by investing in regional net-zero energy plans, supporting de-risking and accelerating the development of new interprovincial transmission lines for clean power.

Heavy industry (including mining and manufacturing)

• Introducing a new Buy Clean Strategy for federal investments, to prioritize made-in-Canada low-carbon products in infrastructure.
• Enhancing efforts to decarbonize large emitters through new investments in the Industrial Energy Management Program, including for energy efficiency retrofits for small-to-moderate projects ($194 million), and developing a Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Strategy.

Oil and gas

• Capping emissions “at the pace and scale needed to get to net zero by 2050,” the details of which will be developed in collaboration with industry, provinces and Indigenous partners starting this spring.
• Supporting development of CCUS, including through policy certainty (e.g., by providing the details of the CCUS investment tax credit that was announced in 2021).
• Developing new measures to reduce oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75% below 2012 levels by 2030, including strengthened regulations that will be introduced in early 2023.

Transportation

• Accelerating the switch to zero-emission on-road vehicles (ZEVs), including by setting annually increasing requirements towards achieving 100% light duty vehicle ZEV sales by 2035 and developing a medium-and-heavy-duty (MHDV) ZEV regulation to require 100% MHDV sales to be ZEVs by 2040 for a subset of vehicle types (based on feasibility).
• Supporting transit agencies and school boards in transitioning bus fleets to ZEVs, including through planning and purchasing at least 5,000 zero-emission buses.

Agriculture

• Making additional investments in on-farm climate mitigation practices and practices that contribute to the fertilizer emissions target and Global Methane Pledge ($470 million), and in a resilient agricultural landscapes program to support carbon sequestration and adaptation ($150 million).
• Supporting the development and adoption of clean technologies, including through increased funding ($330 million).
• Funding research supporting a path to net-zero emissions, knowledge transfer and developing metrics ($100 million).