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Canada giving tax breaks to boost renewable energy |
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| CANADA: July 29, 2002 | ||
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OTTAWA - Canada, under fire for dragging its feet on whether to ratify the Kyoto climate-change accord, said it would use tax breaks to encourage investment in renewable energy and energy conservation projects.
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Deputy Prime Minister John Manley announced two proposed changes to income tax rules that he said would make it financially attractive to build wind turbines and ensure that renewable energy projects could raise financing in the same way as nonrenewable energy projects. "I am confident that Canadians will support our efforts to encourage the production of more renewable energy in Canada," Manley said in a statement. In the last federal budget, which was presented in December 2001, the government said it would give C$260 million ($164 million) to the wind power industry to increase current production of 200 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts by 2016. Signing up to Kyoto - the 1997 treaty designed to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming - would oblige Canada to cut its emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels, by 2010. As of 1999, Canada's emissions were already 15 percent higher than 1990 levels. Ottawa originally said it intended to ratify Kyoto this June but then called for more consultations in the face of strong resistance from businesses, energy producers and several provincial governments.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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