Yesterday, Line Beauchamp, Quebec's Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, introduced a bill in the Quebec legislature that moves the province closer to adopting a cap and trade bill that would introduce a carbon registry for companies in the province. As a member of the Western Climate Initiative, the registry is necessary to determine how many carbon credits will be allotted to the province. Those credits will then be allotted to companies that meet their greenhouse gas emissions targets.

The bill will be adopted by the end of June. The first emission caps will be introduced between 2012 and 2015, targeting electricity-producing companies and major industries that emit more than 25,000 tonnes a year of GHGs. After 2015, the second phase will target, among other sectors, transportation as well as home and commercial heating companies.

The system the Quebec government intends to introduce will use 1990 as the reference year, as stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol. It will be based on absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions - unlike Ottawa's plan, which stipulates the use of an intensity-based reduction target). This is in line with other WCI participants.

For a draft of the bill (in French), click here.

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