Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government wants a 42% reduction in emissions from the oil and gas sector as part of Canada’s plan to meet its 2030 emissions-reduction goal.
Trudeau’s blueprint promises industry a tax credit to help pay for carbon-capture projects, details of which may come as soon as next week’s federal budget. It doesn’t, however, include a specific emissions cap on the fossil-fuel sector, which accounts for about a tenth of Canada’s total economic output.
The document, introduced Tuesday in parliament by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, promises an additional C$9.1 billion ($7.3 billion) in new spending to reach Canada’s climate targets. Overall, the government aims to reduce emissions more than 40% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Releasing a climate plan is a key step toward turning the Trudeau government’s lofty environmental rhetoric into reality. While it lacks many vital details for the economically-crucial energy industry, the prime minister argued the overall sectoral target makes it clear to producers what’s expected of them.
“If there’s any oil and gas sector in the world that can do it, it’s Canada’s,” Trudeau told a conference in Vancouver. “Big oil lobbyists have had their time on the field,” he added, saying it’s now up to workers and engineers to bring emissions down.
Reaction in Canada’s oil patch was cautiously supportive.
The government plan acknowledges that oil and gas demand will continue for decades, Terry Abel, executive vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in an emailed statement. But he added that Canada can help reduce global emissions by providing cleaner natural gas to offset crude oil from places like Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has reignited calls in Western Canada to promote more ethically-sourced fossil fuels.
“One of the largest contributions Canada can make to lowering global greenhouse gas emissions is by exporting Canadian liquefied natural gas to displace the use of coal in the world’s energy mix,” he said.
This is a crisis brought on by years of energy policies around the globe that are misaligned with the realities of energy demand leading to an increasing reliance on dictatorships to provide critical energy supplies.
Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest pipeline company, is reviewing the government’s targets but already has “a well-developed emissions reduction plan that’s aligned with the objectives of the Paris agreement,” spokesperson Jesse Semko said by email. “We’ve been able to reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 21% and our absolute emissions by 14% compared to our 2018 baseline.”
The government’s target is more aggressive than many Canadian energy companies have themselves planned. Suncor Energy Inc., for example, aims to cut emissions by about a third by 2030.
Climate activists, meanwhile, complained that Trudeau didn’t go far enough. “Avoiding catastrophic climate change requires winding down production of oil and gas over the next decade,” Keith Brooks, program director at Environmental Defence, said in a statement.
And in parliament, New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh — who agreed last week to keep the Liberals in power for three years in exchange for more social spending — lamented that the plan had little say on ending fossil-fuel subsidies and helping workers transition to greener jobs.
