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Winter
2017
Grains
West
18
Feature
BY TAMARA LEIGH • IMAGES COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA
Agriculture and climate policy in a second-best world
CARBON
COMPROMISE
He pressUre is on for
Canada’s federal and provincial
governments to cut carbon
emissions and demonstrate meaningful
progress to reduce the impacts of
climate change. In an ever-evolving
environment of new policies and
regulations, Western Canada’s grain
growers are working to make sense of
what the impacts will be when the dust
settles and the bills come due.
“Agriculture is a success story on
the whole issue of reducing carbon
emissions,” said Kevin Auch, who farms
near Carmangay, AB, and is chairman of
the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC).
“Grain producers have already made
strides in reducing the amount of energy
we use and sequestering carbon in our
soils. We are part of the solution.”
Over the past year, significant
changes have been made to climate
policies across the Prairies, all with
different timelines and approaches to
reducing carbon emissions. Agricultural
organizations like AWC have invested
their time in meeting with decision
makers to make sure that agriculture is
part of the discussion.
“One of the other things that
governments need to recognize is a
carbon tax will be reflected in costs to
T
farmers—not just fuel, but other inputs
and transportation of those inputs,”
said Auch. “We want them to recognize
that putting a tax on carbon shouldn’t
disadvantage grain farmers. We rely on
exports into international markets and
can’t pass those costs on. The price of
wheat is the price of wheat.”
Carbon pricing places a per-tonne
fee on carbon emissions, sending
signals to producers and consumers
to reduce their consumption of fossil
fuels by increasing the cost. In a cap-
and-trade system, government caps
the overall level of carbon pollution
from industry, and assigns quotas