Canada’s federal government is reviewing automobile emissions standards as the neighbouring United States plans to weaken those standards.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will unveil a discussion paper on Tuesday that will officially launch a review of the Canada-U.S. vehicle emissions standards. Ottawa plans to review the joint vehicle emissions standards it has with the United States before it decides what to do about the U.S.'s plan to lessen those standards in coming years.
Last week, the White House announced it is going to cancel the required annual increases in emissions standards after 2021. Canada and the U.S. have been aligned on vehicle emissions for more than two decades. Unless Canada scraps the existing regulations and writes its own, which could take two years, the country will automatically follow the American plan.
That plan, agreed to in 2012, was to compel automakers to make vehicles more fuel efficient for each model year between 2017 and 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, is now going to freeze the standards as of 2021.
A spokesperson for Minister McKenna said the review was planned when the regulations were adopted, not as a result of the U.S. move last week. The review will look at both environmental and economic impacts and complete it before any decisions are made on how to proceed.
Canada's aim to cut emissions to be at least 30% less than they were in 2005 by 2030 requires road transportation to play its part. However, Canadian automakers don't want Ottawa to make any final decisions on regulations until it's clear what will happen in the United States.
At least 19 state attorneys plan to sue the U.S. government over the rollbacks, including the White House's goal to eliminate a federal legal waiver that allows states to set standards stricter than the national ones.
If Canada remains aligned with the U.S. on vehicle emissions and the U.S. does halt further improvements after 2021, the International Council on Clean Transportation last week projected it will add 10 million tonnes to the annual emissions of cars and trucks by 2030, compared to where they would be with the existing standards
