Environment committee  I'm saying that every country must assume responsibility for its emissions. The Chinese must be part of the international approach to control climate change.

Environment committee  The answer to that question is no. Germany is in the process of scaling back its nuclear energy production.

Environment committee  Sorry, section 71? I didn't catch what you're talking about.

Environment committee  An absolute emission reduction would be preferred in terms of the regulations, but we do favour regulations. In fact, I didn't get a chance to answer your question from before, which is that one way of designing a system is to have an upstream cap and trade system, which of course involves regulations for large final emitters, have a downstream carbon tax that is felt by the consumer, and have regulations for things I've mentioned already that aren't really well captured by a carbon price.

Environment committee  I think there has been behavioural change with respect to higher gas prices, for example, with the kinds of vehicles people are buying, but this is why I argue that the best way to actually address emissions from transportation from personal vehicles is to put in place regulations that mandate that we ramp up quite quickly the efficiency of vehicles that we're allowed to buy.

Environment committee  It is something we're going to release in three weeks.

Environment committee  No, it would be significantly higher than that.

Environment committee  No, a widespread carbon price, when just applied to large final emitters, would apply to all energy use that involved fossil fuels, so we're not just talking about 50%. It's actually closer to 80% of the sectors that are putting out carbon dioxide. Certain things aren't captured very well by carbon taxes, aren't affected very much by carbon taxes, and this is where I think there is a real need, at least in that case, for regulations for things like vehicle fuel efficiency, buildings, and much higher standards for efficiency for appliances, for example.

Environment committee  I cited evidence as to how we can get the kinds of deep reductions we need at little economic cost. The IPCC has done one globally. We've done modelling for 2020, and there is modelling for 2050. All of it shows that we can get serious, deep emission reductions with virtually no impact on the economy.

Environment committee  I think that's an important point.

Environment committee  Up until the opposition to a carbon tax it sounded like you had a vision.

Environment committee  Because that's what it is. It's about using less energy. It's about using cleaner energy. It's about moving away from polluting industries and toward industries that provide us with the services we need and yet don't disturb the climate. It will have to involve a carbon tax--a carbon price of some kind--whether it's a tax or a cap and trade system.

Environment committee  You can put in place any system that prices carbon and that gives oil and gas companies an incentive to themselves invest in carbon capture and sequestration, if they feel like it. That's the approach that we would advocate, that you set the targets, you put in place a carbon price, whether it's a carbon tax or a cap and trade system--actually, there are hybrids that probably would work best--but at the end of the day, I don't see any reason why it should be the public that picks up the tab for oil and gas companies taking responsibility for the pollution they produce.

Environment committee  The Climate Action Network of Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation have been asking for this report to be released. Our understanding is that it was completed before the Bali conference, and we were hoping it was going to come out then, because I think it would very likely have been useful in hopefully shaping government policy in our international positions.

Environment committee  We plan to focus on precisely that in the next part of the study. I can't say for certain that we can exceed the proposed target for 2020. The experts that I've spoken to say that the 2020 targets are achievable, but I don't know if they can be surpassed.