Ontario's Anti-Smog Action Plan
The Ministry of the Environment laid out Ontario’s Anti-Smog Action Plan ("ASAP 1998") in January 1998, committing its signatories to the goal of reducing ground- level ozone and to a series of reduction targets for specific constituents of smog. The plan grew out of a smog-reduction planning process begun in June 1996, and is characterized as “an evolving document.” MOE released a first progress report, ASAP 2000, in August 2000.
The ministry’s second progress report, Ontario’s Anti-Smog Action Plan: Progress through Partnership (ASAP 2002), released during this reporting year, provides an update on progress made by ASAP partners toward the smog-reduction goals, which are to be achieved through a range of both regulatory and voluntary actions. ASAP partners include government groups, industry and non-governmental organizations, as well as academics/researchers, all of whom have declared their commitment to the plan’s goals by signing the Anti-Smog Accord. The accord presently has over 50 signatories.
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Ontario’s Anti-Smog Action Plan: Progress through Partnership
Section 1
The goal of ASAP is “to achieve, by 2015, a 75 per cent reduction in the average number of times the 80 parts per billion (ppb) one hour ozone Ambient Air Quality Criterion (AAQC) is exceeded.” The baseline is the average number of annual exceedences from 1990 to 1994. In order to achieve this goal, the plan commits to a province-wide emission reduction target of 45 per cent from 1990 levels for both nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 2015. ASAP 1998 endorsed an interim reduction in particulate matter (PM10) of 10 per cent by 2015, recognizing that a comprehensive understanding of the sources of PM10 is needed before effective reduction strategies could be developed. ASAP also commits to measuring progress against the sulphur dioxide (SO2) target established under the Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000, since this pollutant is a “major precursor leading to the formation of fine particulate matter.” As well, the Ontario government has proposed to advance the deadline for NOx and SO2 reduction from 2015 to 2010.
Section 2
Section 2.0 profiles the smog-reduction activities of industry, transportation, municipal, provincial (MOE and the Ministry of Transportation), federal (Environment Canada), non-governmental (e.g., Pollution Probe) and ASAP research partners (e.g., Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology). It describes a number of MOE’s smog-reduction initiatives that involve ASAP stakeholders, such as emissions caps and emissions reduction trading for the electricity sector, mandatory monitoring and reporting of emissions, and smog advisories and watches.
Section 3
Section 3.0 quantifies emissions and reductions of key constituents of and precursors to smog from a range of emitters and compares them to the established targets. A key feature is a series of four tables – one each for NOx, VOCs, SO2 and PM2.5 — which present data on current and estimated future emissions. The data are broken down by source type (i.e., point versus area), sector and year. Each table includes totals for each year considered, allows for a comparison of current and estimated future emission reductions to reduction targets for each pollutant, and provides a gap analysis under both 2010 and 2015 target date scenarios. Although the tables reveal that emission loadings of all four smog-causing pollutants have declined since 1990, they also show that Ontario is not on track for meeting its reduction targets for any of the pollutants (with the possible exception of NOx, under a 2015 deadline scenario). “More work may be required to achieve anti-smog targets,” ASAP 2002 concedes.
Section 4
Section 4.0 describes a number of air quality initiatives undertaken by ASAP partners outside the ASAP forum, including MOE’s efforts to update air standards and activities to support the US EPA’s smog-control plan in US courts.
Section 5
Section 5.0 provides a brief recapitulation of key ASAP efforts and progress.
ECO Comment
MOE and ASAP partners are to be commended for having significantly improved the way in which they quantify and report on progress toward their smog-reduction targets. As noted in the ECO’s 2000/2001 annual report, ASAP 2000 “did not clearly compare actual smog reduction achievements to stated targets.” ASAP 2002 does.
The four tables and accompanying text found in the report constitute a comprehensive science-based analysis of emissions and emission reductions. The thorough reporting of progress against targets gives the reader a clear picture of the degree to which ASAP partners are on track. While the first progress report itemized emission reductions in a confusing way — some as an absolute quantity, others as quantity per year, and some simply as a percentage — ASAP 2002, in contrast, describes emissions reductions in a consistent way. The tables in Section 3.0 present emissions, targets and gaps in absolute terms. The text also describes all emissions, and changes in emissions, in absolute terms (and includes percentages in some cases). Such consistency makes it easier to compare the results across sectors and years.
However, while MOE does refer to its new mandatory monitoring and public reporting regulation for small and large emitters (including electricity generators, industries, municipalities and institutions), the ministry could have performed an important service by providing information on when and how the emissions data generated by facilities can be publicly accessed. (This data can be accessed through MOE’s Air Emissions Monitoring Web site.) The second round of annual reports for large companies and the first round of reports for small companies are due by June 1, 2003.
| This is an article from the 2002/03 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2003. "Ontario's Anti-Smog Action Plan." Thinking Beyond the Near and Now, ECO Annual Report, 2002-03. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 62-64.
