Manitoba Joins Climate Change Initiative

WINNIPEG - Jun 12/07 - SNS -- Manitoba has joined British Columbia and six western U.S. states in the Western Climate Initiative.

The Western Climate Initiative began in February when the Governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington jointly signed an agreement to establish a regional greenhouse gas reduction goal and develop market-based strategies to achieve the goal. British Columbia joined the initiative in April and Utah joined in May.

Through the initiative, states and provinces will work together to identify, evaluate and implement ways to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region and to achieve related co-benefits. The participants are all members of The Climate Registry, a new cross-border greenhouse gas registry that kicked off last month with 34 state, 2 provincial, and 3 tribal members.

"This kind of agreement illustrates that individual state and provincial governments can take concrete actions to fight climate change in the absence of clear federal leadership," Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said.

"Global warming is a challenge that respects no border. Manitoba has a climate change action plan that includes legislating Kyoto targets, setting a made-in-Manitoba vehicle standard, reducing emissions from our larger landfills, enshrining leading-edge green building and fleet vehicle standards and phasing out the last remaining coal-fired generation facility in the province. Today's agreement will enable us to work with other states and provinces to build on these actions."

Also, Wyoming and Colorado recently began participating in the Western Climate Initiative as official observers while they continue to develop their own state policies and initiatives.

"Colorado will be part of the solution to this problem," said Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado. "As we put together a Colorado strategy, I will thoroughly explore all of the options that are on the table. This process is clearly important, and I appreciate the opportunity to send observers from Colorado to learn more about their proposal."

Manitoba and B.C. are the first Canadian provinces to join the newly formed Climate Registry. The Climate Registry, announced last month, is the largest cooperative effort in the U.S. on climate change. Thirty-four states, representing over 70 percent of the U.S. population are currently charter members. The goal of the Registry is to act as a mechanism for measuring, tracking, verifying and publicly reporting greenhouse gas emissions accurately, transparently and consistently across borders and industry sectors. This is seen as a critical first step in developing robust programs to reduce emissions across the U.S. and North America.

Some of the specific provisions of the Western Climate Initiative agreement include:

Setting an overall regional goal by August 2007 to reduce emissions from the province and the states collectively, consistent with state-by-state and provincial goals;

Participating in a multi-jurisdictional GHG registry to enable tracking, management, and crediting for entities that reduce GHG emissions, consistent with the state/provincial GHG reporting mechanisms and requirements. Developing, within 18 months of the effective date of the agreement (i.e., by August 2008), a design for a regional market-based multi-sector mechanism to achieve the regional GHG reduction goal; and Promoting greater energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, advocating for national climate policies and identifying measures to adapt to climate change.