Canada will dump its coal power plants by 2030

Only plants capturing emissions will be allowed.

While US President-elect Trump has promised to bring jobs back to the coal-mining industry despite market forces favoring cheaper natural gas, America’s northern neighbor is pressing to move beyond the fuel that started the Industrial Revolution.

On Monday, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna announced a plan to completely phase out coal-burning power plants by 2030—unless those plants capture and store their carbon dioxide emissions.

Although fossil fuels only account for about 20 percent of Canada’s electricity due to a significant amount of hydroelectric power, coal is responsible for about three-quarters of energy CO2 emissions. That's equivalent to the emissions of 1.3 million cars, the government said.

In October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that all provinces would be required to implement carbon emissions pricing programs by 2018. British Columbia has had a carbon tax since 2008, while Alberta will have a carbon tax starting on January 1. Ontario and Quebec are already operating carbon cap-and-trade schemes. Either sort of program will fulfill the requirement as long as the price per ton of emissions meets the federal standard.

While Canada currently gets about 80 percent of its electricity from “non-emitting sources” (renewables and nuclear), it is aiming to hit 90 percent by 2030. The overall goal is to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.