The Legault government will devote $ 6.7 billion over the next five years as part of the implementation of the “Plan for a green economy”. Quebec thus hopes that the economic recovery at the end of the pandemic will be part of the trajectory of the fight against climate change.
“We know, the planet is heating up. In the long term, it is very serious ”, argued Monday the Prime Minister Franois Legault, while presenting in Montreal his plan to fight against the upheavals of the climate. “We have a duty to the next generations,” he added.
With the “Plan for a green economy”, “the government is laying the foundations for a green economic recovery and reiterates Quebec’s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37.5% by 2030 compared to at their 1990 level, ”Mr. Legault also argued. “The large amount of money devoted to this policy framework for electrification and the fight against climate change demonstrates the government’s desire to make Quebec a leader in the green economy by relying on its great strength, its clean electricity. “
As revealed The duty Monday morning, Quebec’s climate effort will first involve investments in the transport sector, which will benefit from $ 3.6 billion over the 2021-2026 period.
The government should therefore inject more than $ 1 billion over five years to substantially improve the electrification of the province’s vehicle fleet. This will essentially involve maintaining subsidies intended for buyers and increasing the number of charging stations on the road network, in the residential sector and in the workplace.
Quebec initially hopes that 1.5 million electric vehicles will run on our roads by 2030 (compared to around 80,000 at present), which would then be equivalent to around 30% of “light motor vehicles”. The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, also confirmed Monday that the sale of new gasoline cars will be banned from 2035.
The government has also earmarked nearly $ 500 million, again over a five-year period, to gradually electrify city buses, school buses and intercity buses. By the end of the decade, half of the school buses could be electric. We also want to electrify 40% of the taxi fleet.
Another envelope of $ 1.5 billion is planned to contribute to the completion of six “electric public transport” projects by 2030. Already known, these projects include the “structuring” network of Quebec, but also projects in the Montreal region, including improvements to the Metropolitan Express Network.
Considered a priority by several experts, adaptation to the impacts of climate change is also part of the Legault plan. Almost $ 300 million will be spent on this by 2026. The detailed list includes a “protection plan” against flooding, measures to reduce heat islands and an assessment of the “vulnerability” of critical infrastructure (transport , energy production, drinking water, etc.). A complete mapping of threatened coastal areas is also to be completed in 2025.
Climate delay
For the moment, Quebec is still far behind on its targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The decline is barely 9%, recalled Mr. Legault, while the goal for the end of 2020 was a decrease of 20%. Instead of decreasing, greenhouse gas emissions increased each year in Quebec between 2014 and 2017, according to the most recent official data available.
Still according to government data, this failure can be explained in particular by a marked growth in GHG emissions from the transport sector, which have jumped 23% since 1990. They thus reached 34.06 million tonnes in 2017, or 43 , 3% of all Quebec emissions.
The “road transport” sector alone saw emissions growth of 49.6% between 1990 and 2017, to the point of representing more than a third of Quebec’s GHGs.
Further details will follow.