Alberta is asking industry to cut emissions and pay more for pumping greenhouse gases into the air.
Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said on Thursday that by 2017, large emitters will have to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gases by 20% and carbon levies will double from $15.00 a tonne to $30.00 a tonne.
The NDP also announced it will renew and update the province's current climate change plan and has hired Andrew Leach, associate professor and academic director of energy programs at the University of Alberta School of Business, to chair the advisory panel whose remaining members will be selected over the next few weeks.
Leach called it a "wonderful opportunity" and promised the review will go beyond emissions of oilsands and large emitters.
Phillips was quick to criticize previous Tory governments for a lack of leadership on climate change.
The deadline looming over Alberta's plan is the COP21 United Nations conference on climate change in Paris at the end of the year, where Phillips is determined to present a cleaner, greener Alberta.
