While the next president of the United States looks to reinvigorate the nation’s failing coal industry, Canada has pledged to stop all unabated coal use by 2030.The Canadian government on Monday also committed to produce 90 percent of its energy with non-carbon sources by that year. “We will help achieve this goal by amending existing regulations to result in the equivalent of completely phasing out by 2030 traditional coal power,” Catherine McKenna, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, said in a morning announcement.
Coal-fired energy generation will still be allowed in Canada after 2030 if the plant is fitted with carbon capture and storage technology. Canada has been a leader in development of the technology; for example, Saskatchewan is home to Boundary Dam Unit 3, the world’s first commercial scale coal-fired power plant to incorporate CCS.
The new policy will be implemented via amendments to existing performance standards for coal-fired power plants. According to a government fact sheet, the new amendments “would ensure that all traditional coal-fired units are now going to be required to meet a stringent performance standard of 420 tonnes of carbon dioxide per gigawatt hour (tCO2/GWh) by no later than 2030. This approach would accelerate the phase-out of traditional coal-fired units across Canada.” The new standards will apply only to units without CCS.
Only four Canadian provinces currently use coal for energy generation: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Those provinces will have the option of transitioning entirely from coal, or installing CCS on their plants.
Coal-fired energy generation produces close to 10 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, McKenna said in announcing the new standards. “Accelerating the phase-out of traditional coal units that do not use carbon capture and storage will result in more than five megatonnes of reductions in GHG emissions, in 2030,” the release says.
“The Government of Canada is committed to working closely with provinces and territories to attract the investments necessary to build a modern, integrated, clean-power system that results in local solutions for ratepayers, workers, and the environment. We will also work with provinces and territories to set performance standards for natural gas-fired electricity,” according to the release.
Canadian environmental groups praised the plan. “We’re pleased to see the government thinking holistically about Canada’s electricity sector – including the need to reduce reliance on coal and gas-fired generation – while sending strong investment signals for new clean energy by requiring 90% clean energy by 2030,” Ed Whittingham, executive director at the Pembina Institute, said in a prepared statement.
The coal-using provinces, however, appeared less thrilled. According to Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to work with provinces to develop a national climate action plan, but is now going full steam ahead without consulting them. The climate plan, Wall said, was meant to be discussed and finalized at a meeting next month. “These actions have severely undermined the December meeting and have exposed the prime minister’s disingenuous commitment to federal-provincial collaboration,” Wall said in a statement.