By: Anand Pandit, CNN
Several ideas released Wednesday under Ontario’s Green Shift plan include building public transportation and housing in underserved areas, ensuring new cars will be electric, reducing congestion on transit and tailoring hydro rates to households depending on what type of utility they use.
The province is also pursuing a so-called carbon tax—a levy paid on fossil fuels—which will help pay for this “aggressive” climate change plan, but it also has a separate carbon tax for corporations, which the province described as “new revenue raising” tools in its announcement.
Ontario plans to formally introduce the plan in about a month and implement it in 2021.
The policy calls for 80% of new infrastructure to be built in strategic, low-carbon communities within 10 years.
The plan also aims to deliver a 250% boost in public transit service by 2030 to better accommodate citizens in both urban and suburban areas.
Uncertainties remain about the size of the investment and the structure of the public transportation fund, which will be administered by the province’s finance ministry.
One of the biggest components of the plan is the effort to move car ownership to electric vehicles and mandate that new cars be in the electric category by 2030.
A Canadian passenger vehicle is already required to have a type of alternative fuel system, but in Ontario they will be required to have electric car charging stations as well by that time.
If their owners fail to meet that demand, these new cars will not be able to be registered.
Ontario plans to incentivize the use of electric vehicles through a public display program for drivers.
The province also plans to emphasize transit use, since it will reduce congestion, transport greenhouse gases and provide jobs.
During the unveiling of the plan, Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne said, “No matter what we do, we will never be able to go back and undo the mistakes of the past. But we can do much, much better in the future.”
Ontario is one of a growing number of North American countries that are pushing to address climate change and emissions.
California and other states have already adopted certain tactics of a fuel-economy standards, which in California’s case was going to put an increase in carbon dioxide levels, thus increasing the amount of greenhouse gases out into the atmosphere.
In December, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, held a session focused on climate change and the economy.
This resulted in a call for a $100 trillion goal to fight climate change within the next 15 years, as well as a call for more investment in energy projects and technologies that might make the transition to a less carbon-intensive and less-resource-intensive society more possible.