MLAs ask for more details on P.E.I.'s net-zero climate action plan

The P.E.I. government has unveiled a plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut to net zero by 2040.

But there are questions surrounding how the province plans to meet some of its targets.

To meet the new goals, the agriculture sector would have to reduce emissions by between 35 and 50 per cent. Transportation emissions, by far the largest source of greenhouse gases, will need to drop by 55 to 65 per cent.

Emissions from homes and buildings would be cut by up to 95 per cent.

Those reductions would see P.E.I. reach net zero a decade ahead of the country's goal of 2050.

But some opposition MLAs want more clarity.

"We are concerned about the details and how long it may take those plans to roll out," Green MLA Hannah Bell said. 

"We've got a really short time frame. We're looking at eight years for the first set of really major targets, which is not a long time at all."

I credit the government for identifying these targets, but they have to be realistic and they have to be something that Islanders understand what the costs are going to be.- Robert Henderson, Liberal MLA.

Bell said the government was also vague about where the money for some of the initiatives would come from.

"This ambitious work and necessary work is going to be expensive," she said. We've never shied away from that. But what we don't want to see is that cost being downloaded onto Islanders who can't afford it."

'Real transformation' required, Liberals say

Some of the measures in the plan include further efforts to get non-fossil fuel heat sources installed in all homes and buildings by 2040, and in all government buildings by 2030.

On the agriculture front, the province would be looking to cut emissions from fertilizers as well as methane emissions from livestock by about a third in the next eight years, and to make more farmland able to capture and absorb carbon.

The province would also require car dealerships to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Investments in more public transit options in rural and urban P.E.I. will continue, in an effort to cut the number of vehicles per capita.

Liberal MLA Robert Henderson said the plan may be too optimistic, and that meeting the goals within the province's time frame would require a "real transformation" in infrastructure and logistics, particularly in agriculture and transportation.

"If you have all these electric vehicles … do you have a grid system that you can be able to get them recharged in a reasonable period of time?" he said. 

"I credit the government for identifying these targets, but they have to be realistic and they have to be something that Islanders understand what the costs are going to be."

Financial opportunity for farmers

Donald Killorn, executive director of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture, said he doesn't have too many concerns about the plan and that the transition could even present some opportunities for farmers.

"A tremendous amount of our emissions come from nitrogen-rich fertilizers," he said. "Our farmers, especially our potato farmers, are under a tremendous amount of stress still from the 2021 crop.

"But the upcoming crop will likely be the most expensive crop that's ever gone in the ground in Prince Edward Island because of the cost of nitrogen inputs."

He said there could be "tremendous upside," but meeting all the goals will be a challenge for a decentralized sector. 

"Twenty-five per cent of emissions come from agriculture, but that's over a thousand farms," he said. "We have to develop good incentives for on-farm climate action, and that requires collaboration with [the government]."

Public transit goals

T3 Transit owner Mike Cassidy said the government's priorities when it comes to transit align with his own goals to get cars off the road.

T3 has previously said it's working toward adding electric buses to its fleet, and last year it started operating new bus routes, marking the first tangible step toward an Island-wide public transit system.

Cassidy said it's important to start making these investments now even if it takes a lot of work.

"We have to build a rural transit system to be able to work together with the urban transit system so that we can have affordable transit across this Island, and it's got to be convenient," he said.

"If you don't build it today, we're not going to have it by tomorrow."