I think it's perfectly within the government's mandate to decide exactly what kind of actions it feels are the most effective in meeting the targets we have committed to. I don't want to get into the business of saying that the government should or should not get into the business of buying credits. I'm simply trying to clarify that in terms of what's available out there, there are an awful lot of legitimate activities taking place where real reductions are happening.
I'd like to give you the examples of the Ukraine and Russia, because hot air is mostly identified with them. If the government so chose, it could provide the flexibility to industry--and as I understand it, the government is still considering this option--to purchase internationally. I would strongly urge the government to keep that option open as far as industry is concerned.
To give you an idea, some 45 projects have now been fully approved through the UN system. These are referred to as joint implementation projects, but they are of the same type as the clean development mechanism projects you just referred to, Mr. Godfrey.
Some 93 megatonnes in reductions have been achieved through these projects. If you look at the areas, they're areas where in fact Canadian industry has an awful lot to contribute. They're areas such as energy efficiency, fuel switching, coal mine methane, and--the most significant one--fugitive emissions from oil and gas.
To give you a very concrete example, we're incredibly efficient with our natural gas transmission compared with countries like Russia or the Ukraine, where they have significant fugitive emissions. Now, what is more cost-effective from the perspective of a company like TransCanada Pipelines? Is it to spend a certain amount of dollars for a very minute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions--which would be the case in Canada, because we're already relatively so efficient in that department--or is it, for the same money, getting a much bigger bang in terms of greenhouse gas reductions in countries such as the Ukraine or Russia?
Some 42 megatonnes have already been saved. The methodologies for demonstrating that kind of saving are very easy to establish. The monitoring is very easy. I'm not trying to say here exactly whether the government should get in the business of buying credits or not buying credits. I'm simply trying to say that we should keep that option open if in fact we want to try to allocate that responsibility, then, to large industry.