{"id":185948,"date":"2025-10-02T21:42:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185948\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T21:42:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:42:26","slug":"electricity-emissions-sinking-ontarios-climate-goals-internal-docs-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185948\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity emissions sinking Ontario\u2019s climate goals, internal docs say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario slipped from being in a position to achieve its current emissions target to likely missing it mainly because of increased emissions from electricity generation, government documents reveal.<\/p>\n

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Back in October 2024, the Ford government<\/a> was on course to exceed its 2030 target of getting greenhouse gas emissions at or below 28 per cent of their 2005 levels, an internal analysis shows.<\/p>\n

An update in January 2025, however, significantly worsened the projections and put the province in a position where it can likely no longer hit its goal.<\/p>\n

Although the two models were put together just three months apart, the difference was significant. An internal document obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws shows the change was driven by electricity policies in Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis forecast is about 8 Mt higher than the October 2024 forecast, mainly due to higher electricity sector emissions that reflect latest ENERGY\/IESO energy planning and assumptions,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n

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The analysis released to Global News does not specifically say what changes in electrical power generation and policy forced the government to revise its projections.<\/p>\n

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Some of the emissions increases in Ontario\u2019s electricity supply likely come from the growing role given to gas plants in recent years.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the rate of electricity produced by natural gas rose to its highest level since 2012 as the government relied on it to make up for temporarily lost nuclear generation this decade.<\/p>\n

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The internal emissions report cited \u201cchanging electricity generation,\u201d like nuclear power refurbishment and \u201cpolicy uncertainty\u201d as \u201crisks\u201d to its projection and overall target.<\/p>\n

While the January projection was revised down, the reality could be even worse. On Wednesday, Ontario\u2019s auditor general said the figures were overly optimistic and outdated.<\/p>\n

A new report from the watchdog said the province could miss its original target by \u201can even wider margin\u201d than the January estimate. Particularly, the auditor general said the province had likely overestimated its greenhouse gas emissions reductions in several sectors, including transportation and waste.<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said he believed the need to protect the economy in the face of tariffs from the United States had to be balanced against emissions targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot put families\u2019 financial, household budgets at risk by going off in a direction that\u2019s not achievable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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McCarthy would not accept targets beyond 2030, or promise to achieve those already set, but said the government was trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuing to meet our commitment to at least try to meet our commitment for the 2030 target,\u201d he told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cBut targets are not outcomes. We believe in achievable outcomes, not unrealistic objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClimate change could cost Ontario billions as planet heats up\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario slipped from being in a position to achieve its current emissions target to likely missing it mainly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,13403,93464,93463,13404,714,66],"class_list":["post-185948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-ford-government","tag-ontario-climate-change","tag-ontario-emissions","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}