{"id":636146,"date":"2026-04-29T09:59:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/636146\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:59:29","slug":"n-b-on-track-for-emissions-reductions-despite-2024-spike-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/636146\/","title":{"rendered":"N.B. \u2018on track\u2019 for emissions reductions, despite 2024 spike, minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New Brunswick\u2019s minister of environment and climate change says he\u2019s confident the province can reach a 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target, despite a significant spike in the most recent data.<\/p>\n

Gilles LePage was predicting success in the legislature earlier this month \u2014 before the federal government released numbers showing 11.4 per cent growth in emissions in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that we are on track for our 2030 target,\u201d LePage told a committee of MLAs on April 8.<\/p>\n

That target is 10.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

The 2024 numbers shows emissions rose to 12.8 million tonnes from 11.5 million the year before, putting the 2030 figure further out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that it\u2019s a one-time blip,\u201d said Moe Qureshi, the director of climate research and policy at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

New Brunswick\u2019s emissions have been trending generally downward over the last two decades, with a few exceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 12.8-million-tonne figure is the highest number since 2019.<\/p>\n

\"AnMoe Qureshi, the director of climate research and policy at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, is concerned about a proposed natural gas plant in Tantramar. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

In a statement, LePage said the new data did not affect his optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on current projections, we are still well positioned to achieve our 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

LePage pointed out that a large part of the spike in 2024 was the result of N.B. Power generating more electricity from its fossil-fuel plants during a longer-than-expected shutdown of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station.<\/p>\n

That \u201cshould be treated as an isolated event,\u201d LePage said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | \u2018The status quo isn\u2019t working\u2019: Greenhouse gas emissions spike:\"\"<\/p>\n

N.B. emissions jumped in 2024, jeopardizing provincial targets<\/p>\n

Minister says province is \u2018on track,\u2019 after major emitters spewed 11.4 per cent more carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

Point Lepreau is shut down again this year for scheduled maintenance, but is forecast to come back online in August \u2014 before the cold weather and increased demand that could require heavy-emitting plants to fire up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The higher emissions numbers were released as LePage\u2019s department weighs an environment impact assessment submission from two companies planning to build a data centre in Lorneville and a natural gas plant to power it.<\/p>\n

The assessment projects the centre\u2019s gas plant will emit more than 755,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which would make it the third-largest emitter in New Brunswick after the Irving Oil Refinery and N.B. Power\u2019s coal-fired power plant in Belledune.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these projects that are coming online are going to produce more, rather than reduce emissions,\u201d Qureshi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my concern \u2014 that we\u2019re on a trend that may start going upwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qureshi is also concerned about a proposed natural gas plant in Tantramar, though N.B. Power says it will provide backup power for new renewable generation that will lead to a net reduction in emissions.<\/p>\n

LePage told the committee on April 8 that projects funded this year by the province\u2019s industrial carbon-pricing system would reduce emissions by 306,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n

But that reduction would come over the lifetime of those projects and would not be nearly enough to offset the new emissions from the Lorneville gas plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens if we\u2019re not on track?\u201d LePage said in the April 8 committee session.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike any other thing, we\u2019re going to evaluate on a daily basis to make sure that we move in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

LePage recently announced funding from the province\u2019s industrial carbon-price fund that will upgrade the AV Group mill in Campbellton in his riding to help it reduce its emissions by 3.4 per cent.<\/p>\n

The pricing system sets a specific emission standard per unit of production \u2014 or “output” \u2014 for each of the 15 largest polluters in the province and requires them to reduce emissions by two per cent each year, until they reach 82 per cent of the standard in 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plants that succeed earn credits that can be sold to plants that fail to do so.<\/p>\n

The standards apply only to a small portion of emissions, an element that has been criticized by environmentalists, who want to see more incentives to get emissions down faster.<\/p>\n

Holt said during the 2024 provincial election campaign that the price \u201cneeds to be robust,\u201d with more stringent standards but also with more incentives for companies to meet them.<\/p>\n

After the Carney Liberals won last year\u2019s federal election and said they would keep the requirement for industrial carbon pricing in place, Holt said she would move ahead with changes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been no word on progress since then, though LePage said the province is working toward an update to its Climate Change Action Plan in time for 2027-28.<\/p>\n

\u201cReducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment are priorities to our government,\u201d he said in his statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-636146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636146","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=636146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}