[Canadian]

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, an independent agency created by Parliament in 1988, also suggested a carbon-trading system to cut Canada's emissions 65 per cent below 2006 levels by 2050.

The panel's membership consists of Canada's top business and environmental leaders. Its recommendations are not binding on the government.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has rejected the notion of a carbon tax in the past, as has Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

In the spring, the minority Conservative government tabled a plan to cut the emissions of industrial emitters. That plan, which set a target of a 20 per cent cut in GHG emissions below 2006 levels by 2020, did not include a carbon tax.

"(The report) is not an evaluation or assessment in any way of the government's current plan. That was not our purpose," NRTEE chair Glen Murray told an Ottawa news conference on Monday.

"What it offers instead is a framework for a transition from current approaches to a longer-term vision to achieve deep greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions reductions based on targets now set by the government of Canada."

Murray said meeting the government's medium and long-term reduction goals is feasible using "current and near-term technologies at a manageable cost to our economy in the long run."

A market-based approach such as a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system is the most effective approach, he said.

Murray warned that delaying action would push up future costs because of the cumulative effect of greenhouse gas emissions.

Delay would also bring "the very real risk of not achieving our targets at all," he said.

It does not look like it will ever happen unless someone other than the Liberals or Conservatives can get a majority.

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