A new industry-led report suggests Canada’s farmers can likely only achieve half of the federal government’s targeted 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer emissions by 2030, as Amanda Stephenson reports for Canada’s National Observer.
The report, commissioned by Fertilizer Canada and the Canola Council of Canada, examines what effect a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers on Canadian farms would have on crop yields and farm financial viability.
The report concludes that it may be possible to achieve a 14 per cent reduction in emissions from fertilizer by 2030, but that reaching 30 per cent is not “realistically achievable without imposing significant costs on Canada’s crop producers and potentially damaging the financial health of Canada’s crop production sector.”
“I believe what (this report) is saying is the 30 per cent reduction target is not achievable without putting production and exports in jeopardy, and we’ve been saying that all along,” said Tom Steve, general manager of the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions.
“It was an arbitrary target that was set somewhere in the government, with no path as to how it was going to be achieved.”
Source: Canada’s National Observer.
