News Desk

Planning fuel rules

Canada will require reduced carbon footprints for all fuels so that the country can achieve a 30-megatonne cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the country’s environment department said.

The government will not mandate specific changes to fuels and will focus just on reducing their emissions, officials said after a government announcement in Toronto.

Precise steps are to be determined after consultations, including with Canada’s provinces and relevant industries, and the government will release a discussion paper in February 2017, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Canada’s Liberal government ran on a platform to do more for the environment. The country’s new fuel measures would help it meet the emissions reduction targets of the Paris agreement on climate change, which Canada’s Parliament ratified last month. The government’s stance contrasts sharply with that of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to ease the regulatory burden on all fossil fuel producers.

Canada’s new measures, the "Clean Fuel Standard," will aim to reduce fuels’ carbon intensity, a measure of emissions relative to the amount of energy derived, according to the environment department.

Separately Canada announced it will virtually eliminate the use of traditional coal-fired electricity by 2030.