If passed in substantially its present form, the US GHG reporting rule will have its largest immediate effects on exports of fossil fuels from Canada to the US. All fossil fuel importers will have to report the total GHGs that will be released when the imported products are burned. (To the probable relief of oil sands producers, that mandatory reporting will not include GHG emitted in Canada to produce the fossil fuels.) It may also become more difficult to sell products into the US, without comparable reporting.
In the longer term, Canada may have to upgrade our modest reporting regime. The EPA suggests that a less comprehensive reporting regime (such as Canada’s) does not provide the data necessary to effectively regulate the carbon footprint of a modern economy. The US expects to collect GHG reports from 13,205 entities, compared to the mere 350 that report in Canada, and to capture 55% of total emissions. The US expects its reporting regime to cost$138 million (based on average costs over the first three years) in monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting costs that will be widely distributed through the economy. Impacts of the costs on individual sectors and entities are expected to be generally small, comprising less than 1% of entity receipts and approximately 0.001% of 2007 GDP.
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Two recent EPA announcements–GHG emissions as pollutants and the proposed new carbon inventory reporting rule for emitters of over 25K tons a year starting in 2011 for the year 2010–are welcome and have been long time coming. We may find that we have to scramble to keep up when they come into effect. Luckily, there is an organization in Canada that provides resources to help prepare for the EPA reporting rules – Canadian Standards Association (CSA, World Secretariat for the development of ISO 14064, an international carbon accounting standard). CSA developed a suite with the goal of 'carbon performance made simple' that includes an independent ghg registry, training, advisory services to help measure and manage the footprint, standards and personnel certification for carbon consultants, ghg quantifiers and ghg verifiers. Try http://www.csa.ca/carbonperformance Also, CSA Climate Change is being featured in Canadian Business Journal: http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/emag/may_09...