The Forest Products Association of Canada is calling on the government to commit to action on climate change.
The Forest Products Association of Canada is calling on the government to commit to action on climate change.
As part of its study of Bill C-288, Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of FPAC, addressed the Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources last week, and appealed to the government to use 1990 as its base year for calculation of emissions reductions. FPAC says that anything less sends a message to good corporate citizens that environmental responsibility is not recognized and is indeed penalized by making it more advantageous to wait for regulation.
The industrys environmental improvements come as a result of massive retooling, reinventing its energy model by switching from fossil fuels to clean, renewable biomass energy and transforming itself from one of Canadas largest industrial users towards its ultimate goal of being a net source of green power, Lazar said.
The lesson to be learned from the experience of the forest products industry is fundamental retooling of industry processes is critical to any climate change strategy, Lazar said. FPAC members did not wait to be regulated, deciding instead to move early on climate change and not wait to be regulated, deciding instead to move early on climate change and clean air because they made sense from both an environmental and a competitiveness perspective. And while we are proud of our record in reducing emissions, and determined to go even further, we hope that the government will recognize those industries like the forest products industry that acted early to reduce their emissions.
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