As federal oil and gas emissions caps near the finish line, Canada’s environment minister tells the NDP and Quebec that calling an early election could dash hopes of curbing emissions from Canada’s biggest polluter. I warned you that there is.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Stephen Guilbeault on Monday outlined what is at stake as the government unveils draft regulations to implement the emissions cap, renamed the Oil and Gas Pollution Cap. Emphasized.
The Liberal government is not expected to implement the final regulations until late spring 2025, and an election is not scheduled until late next year. But all three opposition parties have enough votes to send Canadians to the polls early.
The New Democratic Party has not been very clear about when it will overthrow the government, but it has indicated it will not be immediate. The Bloc Quebecois said it was working to push for an early election with the Conservatives, who called the proposed cap “another attack” on Canada’s oil region.
In an interview with CBC News before Monday’s announcement, Guilbeault urged the NDP and the bloc to consider what’s at stake.
“If they decide to support the Conservative Party of Canada to send us to an election sooner than October 2025, they will have to explain to Canadians… why we introduced one of our most important policies. “What they have prevented us from doing is tightening regulations to ensure that the oil and gas sector plays its legitimate role in combating pollution in Canada,” Guilbeault said.
The oil and gas sector is Canada’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; Approximately one-third of the country’s emissions.
The government noted in a news release on Monday that oil and gas companies’ profits increased “10 times” in 2022, from $6.6 billion to $66.6 billion. He added that companies are not investing enough money to reduce their carbon footprint.
“Earnings remain strong following a record year, with capital spending targeting new production rather than decarbonization,” the news release said. “The draft regulations will encourage industry to channel this record profit into decarbonization.”
Monday’s announcement follows the announcement last December of a regulatory framework to limit emissions to buy time, with Ottawa imposing tough limits on oil and gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system. I reconfirmed this. Such a system would allocate a limited number of emissions permits, which would decrease over time until the sector achieved net-zero emissions.
Oil and gas facilities that can reduce emissions faster can sell their surplus permits to other companies through a trading system. According to the proposed regulations, the sector would need to reduce its 2030 emissions by 35 percent below 2019 levels, ultimately reaching net zero by 2050.
The federal government has unveiled how it will set caps on greenhouse gas emissions for the oil and gas industry, the country’s biggest emitter, through a cap-and-trade system.
The upper limit applies to Upstream emissions From Canadian oil and gas development. This regulation will impact natural gas producers, conventional and offshore oil producers, oil sands, LNG facilities, and natural gas processors. Emissions from refineries fall under clean fuel regulations and are therefore exempt.
The government said in a news release that the approach “limits pollution, not production” by purchasing emissions offset credits or contributing to a fund that helps pay for further emissions reductions. , said it would incorporate some flexibility to achieve emissions reductions.
Pollution or production cap?
The industry and others are vocally opposed to this measure. Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canada’s largest oil sands companies, said before He said existing climate policy measures “encourage the right actions” and called proposed emissions caps “unnecessary”.
“The proposed emissions cap has the potential to cause oil and gas operators to unintentionally choose to shut down Canadian production rather than decarbonize for global and domestic markets,” the coalition said. “There is a high possibility that it will have an undesirable impact.”
But Guilbeault said the industry is exaggerating concerns.
“Whether it’s during my time as environment minister or the 30 years I’ve been working in this field, regulations have been announced that industry hasn’t said, ‘Oh my God, this is the end of the planet.’ “I can’t think of a world as we know it,” he told CBC News.
The draft regulations come as the Alberta government introduces a $7 million advertising campaign against the proposal. The company launched television, online video, print and social media advertising under the brand name Scrap the Cap. Trucks carrying campaign electronic billboards regularly patrol the streets around Parliament Hill.
“We call on the federal government to put aside this reckless and extreme idea, reduce emissions and invest in real solutions that won’t undermine Canada’s prosperity and help Alberta grow,” Premier Daniel Smith said in October. I am telling them to support their leadership.”
The Alberta government has said the pending cap would result in significant production cuts, a sentiment echoed by oil region officials. The prefecture also announced Economic impact reportshowed the negative impact of emissions caps on GDP.
Guilbeault said Ottawa is open to negotiating parity agreements with Alberta if it wants to create its own regulations to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector toward net zero by 2050. He said that there is.
“Yes, if Alberta or any other province wanted to implement their own system comparable to the federal system, they would have the ability to do that,” he said.
British Columbia has already committed to implementing its own oil and gas emissions cap backstop, which would prevent any future federal government from moving forward with a national cap-and-trade system for oil and gas emissions. It’s a matter of case.
