Canada unveiled on Wednesday its first federal carbon market, enabling governments, businesses and other organizations to offset their carbon dioxide emissions by purchasing credits.
The launch of the new scheme, however, was not welcomed by climate activists who argue that the trading price would be too low for industries to keep emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Although British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta already have regional compliance credit systems, there was no national one until today. The new federal system is thus critical to Canada’s goal of cutting emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050, said Steven Guilbeault, the country’s Environment Minister.
