Québec and Ontario receive the «Carbon Pricing Champion Award» for their exemplary commitment to the fight against climate change

Paris, December 2, 2015 – During an event organized by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), held on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Change Conference, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Mr. David Heurtel, and the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Glen Murray, had the honour of being awarded the first Carbon Pricing Champion Award. Co-sponsored by the Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), this prize recognizes the leadership that both governments displayed in developing market mechanisms in order to fight climate change.

« It is a great honour to receive this international recognition on behalf of the Québec government. Québec innovated by setting up a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, which was linked to California’s system to create the largest cap-and-trade system in North America. Soon, Ontario will join this market and add to its robustness,” declared Minister Heurtel. Québec and Ontario encompass a population of 20 million people and half of Canada’s economy.

Québec is a fervent advocate of carbon pricing as an effective tool in the fight against climate change. It has positively contributed to international climate negotiations by its interventions, both in Canada and internationally, in order to accelerate the emergence of carbon markets throughout the world, and to increase dialogue between countries and regions. To that effect, it is a member of several international organisations whose membership includes wide-ranging climate change actors. Québec is co-president of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), and a technical partner of both the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) and the States and Regions Alliance of the Climate Group. It is also a member of the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD).

Québec will continue to promote the importance of putting a price on carbon within global economies as well as the importance of incorporating, in the future Paris Agreement, the contribution of subnational, national and regional market mechanisms in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in order to facilitate international trade of carbon credits.

Quebec has recently adopted a GHG emissions reduction target of 37.5 % below 1990 level in 2030, the most ambitious one in Canada, and the carbon market is the cornerstone of Québec’s climate change strategy. All revenues generated by the carbon market are transferred to the Green Fund and reinvested in the implementation of the 2013-2020 Climate Change Action Plan, which aims to reduce GHG emissions and increase society’s adaptation to the impacts of climate change, all the while providing economic stimulus in Québec.

The Minister also insisted on the fact that fighting climate change does not hinder economic development: “Thanks mostly to the carbon market, acting on climate change is proving to be a powerful driver of development, and an opportunity to seize for innovation and sustainable economic growth. Not to mention that all invested efforts, here and worldwide, are essential to maintain our quality of life and to insure our well-being and that of our children.Let's do it for them”, concluded the minister.

For additional information regarding the Carbon Pricing Champion Award, visit: https://ieta.wildapricot.org/resources/News/Press_Releases/2015/December/PRESS_RELEASE_Carbon_Pricing_Award-2-December-2015.pdf.

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Marie-Catherine Leduc

Acting Press Officer

Office of the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change

Media Relations

Ministère du Développement durable,

de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre

les changements climatiques