Alberta Lags On Emissions Targets

Alberta's government is not on track to meet its own greenhouse-gas reduction targets, set six years ago, according to a report by the province's auditor general published Tuesday.

The report by Merwan Saher says the provincial government has neither consistently monitored its results nor released any documentation on outcomes to the public.

Alberta unveiled specific emission reduction targets, for 2020 and 2050, in 2008. But according to the audit, four years later the environment department still had no way of evaluating their effectiveness.

"We found no evidence that the department regularly monitored performance between 2008 and 2012 against the 2008 strategy targets," Saher wrote.

The Canadian Press said Saher put the blame on Robin Campbell, Alberta's environment minister, and his predecessors.

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"Ministerial oversight has been lacking because good oversight would have insisted on there being good results reporting," CP quoted Saher as saying.

The audit says the department is only now preparing its first public report on the progress of its 2008 strategy.

The department completed an implementation plan in 2012 which "lacked the information necessary to monitor performance of actions and the government's overall progress with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting its strategic targets," wrote Saher.

The audit says the plan has not been updated since it was first developed.

"This pace does not reflect the significance that effectively managing climate change has for the economy and environmental performance in Alberta and in Canada," Saher wrote.

By Jeffrey Richmond of Mining.com