Thank you very much.
Thank you to the members of the committee.
It's a pleasure to be here today to talk about the diverse and real opportunities presented both from an economic standpoint as well as an environmental standpoint that a diverse energy mix in Canada can provide, including what we think is essential, and that is the expanded use of biofuels.
For over 30 years, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association has been the country's leading advocate for the biofuels industry. It is also an industry that generates $3.5 billion in yearly economic activity, has created over 14,000 quality Canadian jobs, and returns over $3.7 billion in investments back to government every year. Biofuels, like ethanol and biodiesel, reduce greenhouse gases by up to 99% compared to fossil fuels and on a life-cycle basis, biofuels are already reducing carbon emissions by 4.2 megatonnes annually, which is the equivalent of removing one million cars from the road every year.
With this committee's work in mind, to look for strategic ways to invest in our economy, as well as the government's stated ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Canada in combatting climate change, we'd like to briefly offer some ideas that our industry has on how to leverage the successful biofuels mandates that we already have in place in Canada to strengthen the economy, while at the same time helping reach those ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
First is increasing the already successful biodiesel mandate from 2% to 5% by the year 2020. The transportation sector of course accounts for 23% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. You hear about this quite a bit. That works out to about one-third of Canada's overall greenhouse gas emissions. Every year Canada's 2% biodiesel mandate reduces those annual emission levels by 910,000 tonnes. Increasing the mandate incrementally year by year by 1% or so would more than double those reductions. Blending more biofuels is also consistent with what consumers have told us they want and what they are looking for in their fuels. We did a recent survey of 17,000 Canadians from across the country. When asked, 88% of them said they wanted to see more renewable fuels products and that they felt that government should be doing more to promote Canada's renewable fuels industry.
In terms of increasing the federal mandate that I just talked about, the majority of Canadians, over 65%, are already in support of seeing more biodiesel in the fuel mix. Interestingly enough, less than 10% really seemed opposed to it.
Second is placing a fair value on GHG reductions. Many provinces have, or are working on, some sort of design for a carbon price system. We support this work and we're fully engaged with the provinces in their leadership on this issue. However, complementary measures from the federal government cannot be ignored and really are needed to be a winning part of the overall equation for battling climate change in this country. These can include a variety of things, such as vehicle efficiency standards, increases to the federal mandate, as well as looking at GHG requirements layered on top of those mandates.
Finally, we think there needs to be increased support for clean technology and the bioeconomy in Canada. We should all be very proud of the fact that we have one of the strongest economies in the G-8, but our long-term economic prosperity is going to be determined by the priority we place on sustainability, innovation, and clean technology. Be it through government programs, tax incentives, or the creation of a national bioeconomy framework similar to what already exists in countries like the United States, the European Union, and Croatia, Canada's public policy must continue to find ways to keep up with the needs and the pace of business.
Those are our ideas. We've kept it intentionally short with the ambitious agenda of this group in mind, but of course, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have later.
Thank you very much.