The province is moving towards a low-carbon economy as part of its Climate Leadership Plan but a new poll suggests that most Albertans generally disapprove of the initiative.

The Climate Leadership Plan is being developed based on advice from the Climate Change Advisory Panel to move forward with the transition from coal to renewable electricity sources, put a price on carbon pollution and set emission limits for the oilsands.

The plan also includes programs to improve energy efficiency, support green technology, and reduce methane and the province says it will also help to access new markets for Alberta’s energy products.

Climate Leadership Plan Highlights:

  • Phase out pollution created by burning coal and transition to renewable energy and natural gas electricity generation by 2030
  • Putting a price on carbon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
    $20/tonne economy-wide in January 2017
    $30/tonne economy-wide in January 2018
  • Set an overall oilsands emission limit of 100 megatonnes with provisions for new upgrading and co-generation.
  • Implement a methane reduction strategy to reduce emissions by 45% from 2014 levels by 2025.

The province says 100 percent of the funds collected from carbon pricing will be reinvested in Alberta and a portion will be used to reduce pollution through clean energy research and technology, green infrastructure and education and transition support programs.

A new poll from ThinkHQ shows that Albertans are generally negative on the CLP and that 53 percent now disapprove of the plan.

In December 2015, 44 percent of pollsters disapproved and the survey suggests that the carbon levy is the driving force behind the nine point increase in the disapproval rating.

“It’s disproportionately negative. So we’ve got 63 percent of Albertans saying that they’re opposed to the new carbon levy, almost half of them strongly disapprove of it versus about a third who approve of the new carbon levy coming in and it’s a variety of different things. Some of it is sort of natural pocket-book, personally people are going to be paying more money, but also there’s concerns in and around the timing of it and how fragile the Alberta economy is right now, concerns about going forward, jobs, its impact on the economy and there are also concerns in and around transparency and by that I mean, there’s a strong desire of people, they want to see how much their paying on their utility bills,for instance, for carbon tax or how much they’re paying at the pump for carbon tax, so that’s also a concern,” said Marc Henry from ThinkHQ.

Henry says Albertans are finding certain parts of the plan appealing but now might not be the right time for this particular initiative.

“There are certainly elements of the Climate Leadership Plan, in terms of its broad principles, in terms of its broader direction, that there is an appetite for, in Alberta, so it’s not that Albertans are necessarily opposed to a climate leadership plan, they maybe just don’t like this one, and not right now.” he said. “It’s much easier to be an environmentalist when the economy is good than when times are tough”

The ThinkHQ poll sampled 1331 people with a margin of error of +/- 2.7.

For more on Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, click HERE.

To view the results of the ThinkHQ poll scroll the document below.