[2] The government paid about half the excess cost of producing electricity from wind, compared to conventional sources, for the first 10 years of a project.
[3] In 2002, Canada upheld the Kyoto Protocol, a nationwide pledge to help maintain and reduce greenhouse gas based on the theory that society has caused global warming.
These shortcomings were the product of government officials reacting too hastily to newly evidenced environmental concerns resulting from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.
The superseding program, ecoEnergy for Renewable Power, uses government funding and tax incentives to encourage the production of various renewable energy sources such as low-impact hydro, biomass, photovoltaic and geothermal energy in addition to the wind power Canada was already heavily invested in.
EcoEnergy for Renewable Power is part of a larger program called the ecoACTION Clean Air Agenda,[6] which planned to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 to 2020.
The Wind Power Production Incentive program was not a complete failure, but merely a premature and under-informed attempt at a large issue.
"The ecoEnergy for Renewable Power program will provide an incentive of one cent per kilowatt hour for up to 10 years to eligible projects constructed over the next four years that generate clean electricity from renewable sources" (Brown), a 0.2 cent per kilowatt hour decrease from the initial WPPI incentive.
[citation needed] It jump-started the industry and laid the blueprint for future clean energy acceleration programs in Canada and across the world.