Canada and Quebec have always shared the same inability to achieve their climate and environmental targets. Why ? Lack of public access to data from crucial sectors for the energy transition would handicap decision-making and accountability in both the public and private sectors.
At present, we have no accurate and detailed portrait, either in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada, of the way energy is produced and consumed, observes the principal researcher at the Chair in management of the Energy from HEC Montreal, Johanne Whitmore. However, such a portrait is essential for any energy transition, because it would make it possible to properly prioritize measures and investments.
We obviously know the main lines. Globally, the energy sector accounts for three-quarters of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Canada, it is estimated to be close to 70% of national emissions. The energy sector is under provincial jurisdiction, so we can break down province by province what the main sources of energy are and how they are used.
The data available to researchers from the government would sometimes not be much more detailed. For example, we do not know if the electrification of the automobile is as effective in the city as in the regions, or if the use of hydrogen to replace heavy hydrocarbons will be as effective in all industries in the province. We can only guess.
The Montreal researcher compares this state of our knowledge of the Canadian energy system to that of a patient who consults a doctor who tells him that he has cancer… without telling him where it is or how to treat it.
“We have the feeling of operating in the dark. At the moment, we are often told that our research does not reflect reality, since we do not have all the necessary data, says Johanne Whitmore. The balance of the energy system is incomplete. Yet it is crucial for the start of the transition. And it doesn’t happen, because there’s too much missing data. »
The researcher of the Chair of Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal deplores having to spend “far too much time” contacting individual agencies and companies to collect data that Statistics should normally be able to provide to her immediately. Canada or the Department of Natural Resources.
The problem is that companies in the Canadian energy sector are being dragged out. They qualify detailed data on how they generate GHGs in the country as confidential. According to them, disclosing this information would make them less competitive.
However, several of these companies that are headquartered in the United States are already transmitting similar data to the US government. In the United States, the Department of Energy even publishes, directly on the Internet, through the Federal Environmental Agency, a dashboard that gives a detailed portrait of energy production and the polluting emissions it generates, factory by factory. .
“There is no logic in why this data is not open in Canada as well and cannot be consulted by researchers and the public”, concludes Johanne Whitmore.
A “hazardous” lack of information
In 2020, the Legault government published its Plan for an economy green 2030. However, at that time, Quebec had still not taken stock of the previous action plan, which covered the period 2013-2020. In June 2012, Quebec hoped to reduce its GHG emissions by 20% below 1990 levels, and by 2020 at the latest.
We now know that the target was missed, and by a lot: the plan made it possible to reduce the province’s GHG emissions by 1.8 megatonnes, whereas the target was 15 megatonnes.
In 2018, the government carried out a mid-term review to raise the bar. A waste of time: the lack of data made any form of decision-making for the future impossible. “The calculations presented in different places in the balance sheet lack transparency, and variations in the way of presenting them make interpretations risky”, we wrote four years ago already.
There is no logic in why this data is not open in Canada as well and cannot be consulted by researchers and the public.
Since then, not much has been done to correct the situation, noted HEC Montreal. Worse still, the Quebec strategy between now and 2030 essentially takes up the measures of the 2012-2020 plan, “despite their overall ineffectiveness”. To be a success, this plan must lead no later than 2030 to a reduction of 37.5% of GHG emissions compared to 1990.
Will these targets be achieved? Difficult to determine, the necessary data being inaccessible. Unless there is a dramatic reversal of the trend, says Johanne Whitmore.
“Quebec has made a whole shift in health in just two years during COVID, but nothing has changed since 2006 in energy, deplores the researcher. We don’t have the same level of data. In health, we have been able to take measures, some even restrictive, whereas in energy, we only provide incentives. We will not be able to make the transition only with incentives. The provinces and the federal government will have to unite their efforts, and we will have to provide access for research to more detailed data in all sectors: energy, transport, trade…”