New Green Plan Fails to Substantially Recognize Early Action- Punishes Proactive Industries
April 26 2007, Ottawa, ON
Canada’s Forest Products Industry has Already Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 54% since 1990
The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), representing Canada’s largest industrial producer of renewable energy, today criticized the Government’s 2007 Regulatory Framework for Industrial Air Emissions for not doing enough to provide credit for early action taken by some sectors on greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Plan’s credit for those industries who have acted early to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is simply inadequate,” said Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of FPAC. “Since 1990 our industry has already reduced emissions by 54% on an intensity basis. Asking for another 18% by 2010 on top of that without proper recognition of what has already been done is simply unrealistic. It also sends a message to good corporate citizens that environmental responsibility is not recognized and is indeed penalized by making it more advantageous to wait for regulation.”
“FPAC members did not wait to be regulated, deciding instead to move early on climate change and clean air because they made sense from both an environmental and a competitiveness perspective,” continued Lazar. “The industry has already made significant environmental improvements since 1990 primarily as a result of massive retooling, reinventing its energy model by switching from fossil fuels to clean, renewable biomass energy and transforming itself from one of Canada’s largest industrial energy users towards its ultimate goal of being a net source of green power.”
Over the past decade, the industry has invested in facility upgrades and innovative processes in a continued effort to improve its environmental performance, limit its impact on climate change, and enhance its global competitiveness. Since 1990, FPAC members have not only reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 44% (7 times Kyoto baseline targets without the use of offsets), they have done so while increasing production by 20%, improving intensity per tonne of output by 54%, improving air quality by 60%, reducing consumption of fossil fuels by 45%, reducing what they send to landfill by 40%, and they are ready to do more.
FPAC is the voice of Canada’s wood, pulp and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade and environmental affairs. Canada’s forest industry is an $80 billion dollar a year industry that represents 3% of Canada’s GDP. The industry is one of Canada’s largest employers, operating in over 320 Canadian communities and providing nearly 900,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
- 30 -
For more information, contact:
Isabelle Des Chênes
Director, Communications
Forest Products Association of Canada
(613) 563-1441 ext: 323
ideschenes@fpac.ca
