Canadian Oil and Gas Producers to Reduce GHG Emissions by 42% by 2030

Canada’s government unveiled tough new plans today to dramatically reduce the country’s carbon emissions.

Canadian environment minister Steven Guilbeault tabled the comprehensive emissions reduction plan, which proposes a 42% reduction on emissions in the country’s oil and sector from a 2019 baseline.

“If there’s any oil and gas sector in the world that can do it, it’s Canada,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, speaking at the Globe Forum sustainability conference in Vancouver.

“With record profits, this is the moment for the oil and gas sector to invest in the sustainable future that will be good for business, good for communities and good for our future,” he added, quoted by Canada’s Financial Post. 

Canada’s oil sands have come under increased global scrutiny in recent years owing to the carbon intensity of the process by which oil is extracted. The process of extraction requires huge amounts of energy and leaves a large environmental footprint.

A 2020 report by Pembina Institute, for instance, estimates that a barrel of oil produced in Canada has 70% more GHG emissions than the average barrel of conventional oil.  

That’s something the Canadian government is looking to address with its new climate policies. The plan envisages a mixture of tougher regulations, taxes and funding or incentives for technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), the use of solvents for oil sand extraction, and electrification.

The reaction to the targets has been mixed.

The Canadian Energy Center, an agency set up to promote Canadian energy producers, believes that the targets go “too far, too fast.”

The center says that Canadian oil producers have already reduced carbon intensity and have one of the best records in the world on methane emissions. The proposed targets, it says, will unfairly penalize Canadian producers and will do nothing to address rising global energy demand.  

“Setting aggressive targets to cap and reduce the sector’s pollution – while no other major producing nation does the same – is misleading about the future and sends the wrong message to our allies and the world,” writes Canadian Energy Centre’s Deborah Jaremko. 

Meanwhile, Pembina Institute, a clean energy think tank, wants the government to consider even tougher targets.

“This pivotal moment is an opportunity for all levels of government to collaborate on reducing emissions,” said Simon Dyer, Deputy Executive Director at Pembina Institute, in a statement. “With less than a decade to achieve steep carbon reductions, success hinges on the rigorous implementation of the necessary policies and regulations.” 

Canada’s oil and gas industry contributes approximately 6% to Canada’s GDP and produced approximately 26% of the nation’s overall emissions in 2019, according to government figures.

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