December 1, 2018

Clean Fuel Standard: Regulatory Design Paper


The Government of Canada is developing a Clean Fuel Standard to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions through the increased use of lower carbon fuels, energy sources and technologies. The objective of the Clean Fuel Standard is to achieve 30 million tonnes of annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, making an important contribution to the achievement of Canada’s target of reducing national emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Clean Fuel Standard will complement carbon pollution pricing by reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout the lifecycle of fuels and by driving investments in cleaner fuels and in clean technology in Canada.

The Clean Fuel Standard regulations will set separate requirements for liquid, gaseous and solid fossil fuels. The regulations for the liquid stream will be developed first, with the draft regulations for the liquid stream planned for publication in Canada Gazette, Part I, in spring/summer 2019 and the final regulations in 2020.

This document presents key elements of the design of the Clean Fuel Standard regulations, building on the features described in the Clean Fuel Standard regulatory framework that was published in December 2017. As the liquid stream regulations will be published first they focus on requirements for this stream, but they also provide some information on the gaseous and solid streams.