Mr. Speaker, our government takes the challenges of climate change seriously.
For this reason, our government is implementing a sector-by-sector regulatory approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our approach is achieving real reductions while providing regulatory certainty, driving innovation, and leveraging capital stock turnover to avoid locking in long-lived, high-emitting infrastructure.
We are aligning certain sectoral policies with the United States, given the degree of economic integration between our two countries. This approach allows Canada to maximize progress on reducing emissions while maintaining economic competitiveness.
We began implementing our approach by addressing two of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in this country: the transportation and electricity sectors.
In the transportation sector, we worked with the United States to put in place harmonized emission standards for new passenger automobiles and light trucks up to the 2016 model year vehicles, and issued proposed regulations for later model years. With these regulations, it is projected that the 2025 model year vehicles will produce 50% less greenhouse gas emissions than 2008 vehicles. We have taken the same approach to improving fuel efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, such as full-sized pick-ups, semi-trucks, garbage trucks, and buses.
As a result of these regulations, greenhouse gas emissions from the 2018 model year heavy-duty vehicles will be reduced by up to 23%.
In the electricity sector, our government's coal-fired electricity regulations further strengthen Canada's position as a world leader in clean electricity production. We have introduced a tough new regulatory performance standard for coal-fired electricity generation. With these regulations, Canada became the first major coal user to ban the construction of traditional coal-fired electricity generation units.
The fact is that no other government has done as much to reduce greenhouse gases as ours. As I mentioned, our approach is generating results, and Canadians can be proud of it.
As a result of our actions, Canada's 2020 emissions are projected to be about 128 megatonnes lower than what they would have been under the Liberals. It is important to note that this is equivalent to shutting down 37 coal-fired electricity generation plants.
Our government will continue to focus on a pragmatic approach to climate change that will reduce emissions while continuing to create jobs and encourage the growth of Canada's economy. We will achieve all of this without imposing a $20-billion carbon tax on Canadians as proposed by the opposition and the NDP.