Thank you very much for inviting me to join you today.
I'm with the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association. We're the industry association for ethanol and biodiesel in Canada, as well as for other renewable technologies.
Our industry is really going through an unprecedented global growth spurt right now that is being driven in part by rising energy prices as well as by improvements in technology for producing renewable fuels. Over the last couple of years—a year and a half, I guess—our ethanol production has risen from 230 million litres a year to 520 million litres for the end of this year. We've almost doubled ethanol production, I guess, in 18 months. Similarly, biodiesel production has gone from less than 5 million litres a year to just short of 100 million litres.
So Canada is a part of the global growth that's going on. That's being driven today primarily by changes in provincial policy.
I want to address, as our other witnesses have today, our thoughts on addressing climate change in a comprehensive way and how we would be an example of domestic action. It is our perspective, in terms of Kyoto—I'm just pointing this out—that bold international talk is not a substitute for taking action domestically. Similarly, bold talk about initiatives on the domestic front is equally lacking in terms of delivering what I think Canadians want: measurable, practical, visible steps being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions here in Canada.
We believe we are one of the examples of action that can be taken domestically to improve our domestic GHG emission profile.
We think the policy of having renewable fuel content as a part of our energy sector is positive. It's positive whether you're doing it in the electricity sector, requiring renewable portfolio standards, or if you do it in the transportation energy sector, which we represent.
We're very supportive of the initiatives brought forward by this government to have 5% average renewable content by 2010. I would point out that this is the same policy as two of the opposition parties brought forward as well. We think there is a remarkable amount of consensus on this approach between provincial governments of all political stripes and federal parties, irrespective of which one you're looking at. There is a great deal of consensus on this issue.
This comes with benefits not only to the environment. An average of 5% renewable content would reduce GHG emissions by five megatonnes a year in the transportation sector, which is not a solution to all our climate change problems, obviously, but it is a measurable, tangible, practical step that we can take today that also has economic benefits both for our agriculture sector and our rural economy.
In terms of the specifics of what progress we have seen in implementing this, it's a little bit of a mixed update. We don't have much to report that's changed since the last time I had the privilege of addressing this committee. We were expecting an interprovincial meeting sometime this fall to discuss implementing the 5% renewable standard. That has not happened, nor has a meeting been scheduled to date.
We have also not heard any additional details on what the government's renewable fuel standard will look like. Some provisions of that regulation need to be enabled by changes that have been proposed in the Clean Air Act, and obviously the Clean Air Act is in a state of political limbo.
In terms of some of the changes we're looking for to address parity in terms of tax treatment, we're hoping to see those changes made in the next budget. But of course, it's a bit of a black box as to how decision-making is taking place on that.
I guess the total effect of this uncertainty is that it creates a lot of instability for potential investors who are looking to invest in the facilities to make renewal fuel and to feed the government's requirement.
My message to you would be that the fundamental issues in terms of implementing this step of tax parity and market access still exist. We think the stated direction of the government, the opposition, and the provincial governments is the right direction; however, we're somewhat frustrated by the apparent delays in getting there. We're looking not only to the government but to the opposition parties and the provincial governments to redouble their efforts to make this policy, for which there seems to be broad agreement, actually happen in this Parliament.
With that, I conclude my remarks. Thank you.