Montreal

A month before the next large intergovernmental meeting on climate change, to take place in The Hague in the Netherlands, the Canadian government has announced that it will cut emissions of greenhouse gases by about 65 million tonnes per year over the next five years. This would take it one-third of the way towards the target agreed at the previous climate meeting in Kyoto.

The government will spend up to Can$500 million (US$330 million) on cutting emissions from transport, energy production, industry, buildings, forestry and agriculture, international projects, technology and science. Together these activities account for more than 90% of the total.

Since 1995, Canada has spent Can$850 million on climate change, but its greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise. An Environment Canada report found that they were 13% higher in 1998 than in 1990.

Canada's Kyoto target is to cut the 1990 figure by 6% by 2008–12. According to the government figures, this will mean a reduction of some 200 million tonnes.

Canada's “Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change” promises that the government will buy as much as 20% of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. It also includes incentives to stimulate sales of renewable energy and a tripling of the amount of ethanol the country produces annually.

The plan will be taken to a meeting with the provinces later this month in Quebec City in an attempt to convince them to make similar commitments in advance of the meeting in The Hague.