Canada released new greenhouse gas standards yesterday for new passenger vehicles and light trucks.

The rules cover the model years 2017 to 2025 and are aligned with existing standards in the United States. Several environmentalists welcomed the announcement but charged it was largely a public relations move as the country faces international scrutiny at climate talks in Doha, Qatar.

Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent said the rules would make a dent in transportation emissions and protect Canadian jobs and manufacturers, considering the "integrated nature" of the Canada-U.S. vehicle market.

"Given that the transportation sector generates nearly one-quarter of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions, tackling climate change means addressing on-road emissions," said Kent in a speech in Ottawa, Ontario. "These actions prove that we can both tackle climate change and save at the pump both at the same time."

Kent is headed this weekend to Doha for annual U.N. climate talks. Last year, Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international climate pact.

The vehicle standards -- which are expected to be completed next year -- would require cars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5 percent annually on average for model years between 2017 to 2025. Light trucks like those used by farmers and construction workers would face more lenient greenhouse gas reductions of 3.5 percent in the first four years of the program.

As a result, 2025 vehicles will consume up to 50 percent less fuel and emit about 50 percent less greenhouse gases than 2008 models, the government said. The average Canadian driving a 2025 vehicle would save $900 per year on fuel costs in comparison to today's vehicles, it said.

Canada previously released regulations for 2011 to 2016 vehicles.

New goal as emissions rise

Earlier this year, Canadian Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Scott Vaughan -- who acts as Parliament's watchdog -- released a report finding that Canada's greenhouse gas emissions will be 7.4 percent above 2005 levels by the end of the decade. That is a sharp diversion from Canada's pledge to reduce emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Yesterday, several environmentalists said the new transportation policy would do little to counter emissions growth elsewhere.

In the country's oil sands region, for example, rising production is projected to increase greenhouse gas emissions four times above 2005 levels by the end of the decade, according to a 2012 emissions report from the Canadian government (ClimateWire, Aug. 9). The country currently is following a sector-by-sector approach in curbing greenhouse gas emissions but has not released greenhouse gas regulations for oil and gas.

P.J. Partington, an analyst at the environmental think tank Pembina Institute, said the new vehicle standards combined with existing provincial and federal policies would still leave Canada with 113 million metric tons more greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 than governmental climate goals.

"This amount [over the target] is significantly larger than the emissions of all Canadian passenger vehicles in 2010, and fully double the current emissions of British Columbia," Partington said.