“Drastic measures” to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are required in Canada to reach the targets set in 2030, warns the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin in the update of its annual analysis Net Zero Engineering.
Posted yesterday at 5:17 p.m.
This is a comprehensive analysis of Canada’s ability to meet its GHG emissions reduction target of 40-45% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
However, note analysts at SNC-Lavalin, “the 2030 targets represent an enormous and probably unachievable undertaking without a major shock to existing systems in all sectors of the economy, as well as significant commitments on the part of all levels of government in Canada”.
A necessary “national effort”
“While significant improvements have been made in the electricity sector, many other sectors [de l’économie] increased their emissions. In 2019, Canada only reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.1% since 2005,” SNC-Lavalin analysts point out.
“The country now aims to reverse, in eight years, a trend that has developed in most sectors [à l’exception du marché de l’électricité] for most of the past 15 years. »
SNC-Lavalin analysts believe that “a national collaborative effort across sectors is needed to accelerate the integration of the technological and socio-economic changes required to rapidly reduce GHG emissions and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.” .
In addition, say SNC-Lavalin analysts, “support from all levels of government is essential to advance technological change, along with additional incentives to change consumer behavior” toward buying and selling. use of goods and services that emit GHGs.
According to SNC-Lavalin’s analysis, three sectors of the economy will play a “key role” over the next eight years in achieving the 2030 GHG reduction targets: electricity, transport and energy. ‘oil industry.
Thus, the increased electrification of transport and industrial processes could allow rapid gains in GHG reduction, but on condition of accelerating “the abandonment of coal (in four provinces including Alberta) and the addition of a new capacity from hydroelectric, nuclear, solar and wind sources”.
In the transportation sector, SNC-Lavalin analysts recommend an acceleration of investments towards “the widespread introduction of electric vehicles and related charging infrastructure, which includes cars, light and medium trucks (private and commercial ) and, in the medium and long term, the use of hydrogen for heavier trucks”.
In the oil industry, SNC-Lavalin analysts note the need for radical measures for the “reduction of methane emissions [NDLR : un important GES]carbon capture, as well as the replacement of fossil fuels (in extraction and refining plants) with renewable energies”, including “small nuclear and modular reactors in the production of electricity” without GHG emissions.