Whzo pays the bill?
Such a commitment at the highest levels is essential, since air
After the UN released its report on global warming, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon made climate change a central feature of
his term of office. “Galvanizing international action on global
warming,” he said, “is one of [my] main priorities.”
Photo: UN/Eskinder Debebe
pollution doesn’t respect international boundaries. Still, Ban’s
commanding affirmative raises some fascinating questions.
If the consumer must pay, how should global traders charge
for GHG emissions? Will transnational customers actually pay?
What’s the best way to enforce international treaties with countries whose domestic poverty trumps their environmental goodwill? Should rich countries simply pay the cost of cleaning up
GHG waste in poor countries, since that is often the cheapest and
simplest way to reduce emissions?
Take the oilsands. Bitumen development illustrates the “
blackening” of the barrel of oil—the shift from higher-grade reserves to
lower-quality, higher-carbon resources that are more expensive to
produce. Twenty-five years ago, American customers for Canadian
oil generally processed light to medium crude. Those refineries
have since been modified to process heavy oil and oilsands production from Canada. Much of that oil is upgraded, but upgrading
commands a stiff carbon price, accounting for three times the
carbon emissions created by the production of conventional oil.
The same logic applies to refined products. Canada’s net
annual exports of refined products to the United States amount
to about 3. 4 million barrels. Again, refining is energy-intensive,
with the corresponding carbon price we have to pay.
Consider the Canadian GHG ledger. The fuels we use to produce synthetic oil and refined products for U.S. markets amount
to an outsourcing of carbon emissions from the United States.
Outsourcing CO2 production to Canada in this way lowers per
capita GHG emissions produced by Americans but increases those
ascribed to Canadians.
Of course, this sword cuts many ways. Finished goods from
China arrive in Vancouver by the container load, but none of the
pollution generated in Chinese plants and factories enters Canada’s
environmental ledgers. It was, after all, produced in Asia.
Robert Orr (l), United Nations assistant secretary-general for
policy coordination and strategic planning, and Michele Montas,
spokeswoman for the UN secretary-general, at a news conference
discussing the Bali climate change conference.
They and others also observed that, at the time of the original
Kyoto discussions, science had little understanding of the impact on
global warming of tropical deforestation. Deforestation amounts to
destruction of vital CO2 reservoirs, often called “carbon sinks.” Factor
in the loss of sinks from rainforest destruction and Brazil and Indonesia
become the world’s third- and fourth-largest GHG emitters.
Despite the sound and fury, the conference in Bali achieved little.
It reinforced the global dread of carbon-induced climate change
through the media, and the conference agreed to develop detailed
plans for cutting emissions, with special focus on reforestation.
When that is done next year, a convention of member states will
negotiate GHG reduction targets in earnest—or such is the plan.
LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS
Given the glacial pace of implementing global treaties, the first
steps in managing carbon emissions need to be taken locally. An
industry of national and global importance, Canada’s petroleum
sector can become a leader in taking those local steps. More to
the point, a group of large players in the sector has already begun
to do so through an initiative called the Integrated CO2 Network
(ICO2N or, more simply, ICON)—a proposed system for the capture, transport, and underground storage of carbon dioxide.
But before reviewing ICON’s remit, let’s take a quick look at
trends in pollution control. Just as today’s science says controlling
these gases is environmentally critical, today’s higher-cost energy
is combining with technological change and evolving policy to
make it easier to reduce emissions. GHG reduction can take the
form of finding non-hydrocarbon sources of energy. It can mean
using technologies that produce fewer unwanted emissions. Or it
can mean using lower-carbon fuels.
The good news is that a great deal can be done, and in many
different ways. For example, a tried and true way of reducing
air pollution is to take old automobiles off the streets. Replacing
those cars with low-pollution, fuel-efficient vehicles can increase
