Speech

Check against Delivery

Thank you Steven.

I am pleased to be here today, surrounded by Canada’s legacy of aviation achievement to discuss Canada’s future achievements in “green” aviation.

The Action Plan is Canada’s response to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s resolution on climate change. This resolution, adopted in October 2010, set voluntary goals for international aviation emissions. It also encouraged member states to submit national action plans by June 2012 outlining their respective policies and actions to address aviation emissions.

Canada’s Action Plan builds on the success of the world’s first voluntary Memorandum of Understanding to reduce aviation emissions, signed between Transport Canada and Canadian airlines in 2005.

Under this Memorandum of Understanding, Canada’s aviation industry surpassed the original objectives of improving fuel efficiency and was able to show a 31 per cent cumulative improvement from 1990 levels. This is something we can all take pride in.

The Action Plan is in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s goals. It sets a goal to further improve fuel efficiency ─ by at least 2 per cent per year until 2020. Through these efforts, Canada’s aviation sector supports global targets for carbon neutral growth in international aviation from 2020 onwards. Canada’s aviation sector also supports absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emission by 2050.

Today’s announcement is another great example of our Government’s responsible and practical approach to balance the need for a cleaner and healthier environment with protecting jobs and economic growth. As a government we are committed to working with industry, stakeholders and concerned Canadians to achieve real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

In fact, we are seeing good progress in our sector-by-sector plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through the Copenhagen Accord to 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. 

In April of this year, I was pleased to report that, between 2009 and 2010, our emissions remained steady despite economic growth at a rate of 3.2  per cent.

This demonstrates that we can grow our economy without increasing emissions levels. 

Our Government has already taken action in the transportation sector which is Canada’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions

In October 2010, we introduced new light duty vehicle regulations for model years 2010 to 2016 that are projected to see a 25 per cent reduction in emissions for 2016 model vehicles over 2008 models.

Earlier this spring, I announced new proposed heavy duty vehicle emission regulations for the manufacture of everything from full-size pickups, combination tractors and buses to cement, garbage and dump trucks. These new standards are expected to reduce emissions from 2018 model heavy duty vehicles by up to 23 per cent from those sold in 2010. We expect this to translate into total greenhouse gas emissions reductions of about 3 megatonnes annually in 2020—equivalent to removing about 650,000 personal vehicles from the road.

Our Transportation sector regulations not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions—they drive innovation and technology to achieve greater fuel efficiency… which in the end will save us all money at the pumps.  

Together, we will continue to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions and improve the protection of the environment for Canadians.