Although some progress has been made, none of the Atlantic provinces is on track to hit regional greenhouse gas emission reduction levels promised in 2001, says a regional coalition of environmental groups.
The coalition — the Sierra Club-Canada Atlantic, the Ecology Action Centre and the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and Eco P.E.I. — released a report Monday as eastern Canadian premiers and New England governors held their annual meeting in Lenox, Mass.
The group pointed out that under the regional climate change action plan, jurisdictions on both sides of the border agreed to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2010. The overall goal is to see reductions by up to 85 per cent by 2050.
The coalition said that the latest federal figures published in 2008 show that Nova Scotia was 9.9 per cent above the 1990 levels while New Brunswick was 12.8 per cent over and Newfoundland and Labrador 6.9 per cent over.
Figures for Prince Edward Island were not included.
"We have large variations from year to year, but there doesn’t seem to be any trend toward the expected level of the 1990 emissions," said Piotr Trela of the Sierra Club.
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, who co-chaired the Massachusetts meeting, said the premiers and governors are aware of the commitments that were made and feel some progress has resulted in the last 10 years.
"The consensus was that over that 10 years the groundwork was in fact laid," he said in a telephone interview. "The time frame was not as important as the action that got taken over the longer term."
Dexter said every jurisdiction is starting to see reductions while the use of various sources of renewable energy is on the increase.
However, the premier said continued regional co-operation in the energy sector would be key to the further reduction of greenhouse gas levels.
He pointed to Nova Scotia’s new memorandum of understanding with Maine on the development of offshore energy resources, such as tidal power, as an example of that commitment. Dexter also said a cross-border energy committee would meet in Nova Scotia this fall to further discuss options surrounding renewable energy sources.
Brennan Vogel of the Ecology Action Centre of Halifax believes there is cause to be optimistic on the policy side because Nova Scotia has legislated that 25 per cent of its energy needs should come from renewable sources by 2015.
"What we see happening in the provincial policy world right now is government moving quicker than they have at any time in the last decade," said Vogel.
But he said there needs to be a more cohesive policy that would include such things as tailpipe emission standards and options to improve public transportation in urban and rural settings.
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