OTTAWA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Conservative government Thursday introduced the Clean Air Act that begins regulating smog levels by 2010 and looks to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050.
The bill, intended to counter claims that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is soft on the environment, sets out a number of regulation timetables for industries that emit air pollution and greenhouse gases, including the auto industry and the oil and gas sector.
Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said the days when industry voluntarily complied with set environmental standards "are over."
"From now on, all industry sectors will have mandatory requirements and we will enforce those requirements," she said.
The government plans to spend the next four years consulting with industry and the provinces with the aim of developing short-term, medium-term and long-term targets to cut smog emissions.
The bill seeks to cut emissions from 2003 levels by 45 percent to 65 percent by 2050.
In the meantime, the government will set so-called "intensity targets'' which would obligate industry to reduce the amount of energy used per unit of production, without implementing a set restriction on emissions.
The proposed law makes no reference to the Kyoto Protocol although Canada remains a party to the treaty. Under the Kyoto accord, Canada pledged to cut its emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. The country's emissions are now 30 percent above 1990 levels.
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