Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault said on Friday that the Liberal government has cut back on long-promised Canadian oil and gas as two recent court rulings force Ottawa to be more careful about climate policies that affect the province. He said regulations limiting emissions from production had to be delayed.
Guilbeault is in Dubai this year for the annual United Nations climate conference, known as COP28. He said he expects Canada to release the cap framework at the global conference, but not the regulations themselves.
Oil and gas production accounts for more than a quarter of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly since 2005. Emissions from natural gas and conventional oil production have declined over this period, but oil sands emissions have increased by 142%.
Guilbeault has made clear that without significant reductions in emissions in the oil region, Canada will not be able to meet its 2030 national climate goal of reducing emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels.
Earlier this year, Guilbeault said the cap regulations first promised in the 2021 election were coming together slowly because they were so complex. He noted that Canada is the only major oil and gas producer considering such a policy.
He told a news conference from Dubai on Friday that recent court rulings against the Liberal government’s environmental policies add to that complexity.
Court rules against two liberal environmental policies
The first was a Supreme Court ruling that said a new federal law governing environmental impact assessments intruded into provincial jurisdiction by applying to some projects that were supposed to be outside of Ottawa’s control.
The second is a federal court ruling revoking Environment Canada’s “hazardous” designation of all plastic products. The court said the category of plastic products was too broad for a single designation. The decision also touched on some aspects of the distribution of powers between the federal and state states.
“We’ve been told by the courts that the federal government can certainly intervene when it comes to pollution issues, including climate pollution, but we have to be very careful not to interfere with state jurisdiction,” Guilbeault said. said.
“That means we need to make sure our regulations do just that and address pollution without infringing on state jurisdiction. It just means it took a little longer than it should have.”
Guilbeault said Friday that he had hoped to get everything done sooner.
Speaking at the COP27 conference in Egypt last year, Guilbeault said the draft regulations are expected to be published in spring 2023, with the final version expected by the end of this year.
Since then, the government has changed its wording. They have begun to say that the “framework” for the cap will be decided by the end of this year. Guilbeault said Friday that this will outline where the emissions cap will be set and how industry can meet it.
The draft regulations are currently scheduled to be released until 2024, but Guilbeault said in September that it would be at least another year after the draft was published before the caps would begin to apply.
The Liberal Party’s 2021 election platform promised to limit emissions from oil and gas production to “current” levels, but did not specify where those limits would start or how low they would need to go. .
Last year’s Emissions Reduction Plan, the latest roadmap to meet Canada’s 2030 targets, calls for a 42 per cent reduction in oil and gas emissions compared to 2021 levels.
But the government said at the time that that was not necessarily the cap.
The industry has repeatedly said it can’t meet its goals without cutting production, and Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has said he intends to challenge the sector’s emissions cap.
Mr. Smith and Mr. Guilbeault have repeatedly clashed in recent months, but the two are scheduled to meet in person during their visits to Dubai for COP28.
Guilbeault said on Friday that regulations aimed at reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector are also likely to be introduced during COP28. Canada has existing methane regulations that require a 40 to 45 per cent reduction in methane from oil and gas production by 2030. Ottawa intends to increase this to 75%.
He said policy alone would play a major role in reducing overall oil and gas emissions.
