Ottawa and its critics agree there is much more work to be done to achieve Transport Canada’s goal of phasing out the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035, but plans have stalled until the United States sets its course.
The proposals, [Wednesday], are likely to be more ambitious and specific than other countries’ efforts to fight climate change and may include a border tax on imports deemed to be polluting.
There is no pathway to achieving Canada’s greenhouse gas reduction commitments that does not include retrofitting the country’s millions of residential and commercial buildings.
Whether or not you want one, can afford one or think they will do essentially nothing to stop global warming, electric vehicles are coming to Canada en masse. This week, the Canadian government set 2035 as the “mandatory target” for the sale of zero-emission SUVs and light-duty trucks.
That means the sale of gasoline and diesel cars has to stop by then. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra called the target “a must.” The previous target was 2040.
Canada is on track to add more than 200,000 clean energy jobs this decade, considerably more than 125,000 that will be lost in a declining fossil fuel industry, Clean Energy Canada concludes in an analysis released last week.
