Carbon offsets in Ontario

Ontario has begun to put a price on carbon, and they’ve started by looking in farmers’ fields.

Based on agricultural projects, the Ontario government recently announced three new “carbon offset” programs, moving the province one step closer to a cap-and-trade system with Quebec.

Earlier in the year, the two provinces signed a “memorandum of understanding” as a first step toward an interprovincial cap-and-trade system, which would offset pollution beyond a certain level with purchased credits from projects like those recently announced. Quebec, for one, was already a member of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), an organization of American states and Canadian provinces that has long been in discussions toward creating a cap-and-trade system, even recently releasing a set of draft guidelines (340 KB PDF) outlining the eventual agreement’s goals.

The offset projects represent three distinct ways of reducing emissions: reducing nitrogen-enriched fertilizer use, preventing its release as a greenhouse gas; employing low-till and no-till farming techniques, similarly reducing the amount of gas released from the soil; and afforestation, planting trees on deforested land that wouldn’t otherwise be used for crops.

Nationally, attempts to institute a province-spanning cap-and-trade system ran out of steam earlier at the end of 2007, though British Columbia later announced it would pursue an internal cap-and-trade policy compatible with the WCI’s.

BC’s movement toward a cap-and-trade system was also an important lesson for its energy suppliers in Alberta, showing that the voluntary nature of similar emissions trading programs may belie the fact that powerful energy alliances may ultimately make those decisions mandatory. And with Quebec and Ontario the most populous provinces in confederation, their determination toward a cap-and-trade system could well become the standard across the country.

While it may not exactly be a grassroots movement, it’s beginnings are certainly beginning in the soil.