(Montreal) Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, is considering pushing back its oil industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, the environment minister acknowledged in an interview published Saturday. by the CBC network.
Posted at 10:55 a.m.
Justin Trudeau’s government tabled a year ago at the United Nations its plan to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, which calls for a 40% to 45% reduction in its GHG emissions by 2030 by compared to the 2005 level.
With more than a quarter of the country’s carbon emissions, the Canadian oil and gas industry is essential to achieving this objective, presented as an intermediate target for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, “certain measures required to achieve these frank reductions could require more time than what we have between now and 2030”, observed the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, during an interview on the program The House from CBC.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault
“It is possible that if the industry [pétrolière et gazière] needs more time, we will provide it to them, while ensuring that Canada will always meet its 2030 targets,” said Minister Guilbeault.
According to this former environmental activist, the Canadian government is willing “to give a little more time [aux producteurs d’hydrocarbures] if they need it to deploy the infrastructure needed to reduce their emissions”.
He did not say how Ottawa planned to meet its 2030 international commitments if the oil and gas sector, which accounted for 26% of Canadian emissions in 2019, was allowed to push back its reduction targets. Never before has Canada met its previous GHG reduction targets.
The Pathways Alliance, a coalition of six Canadian oil producers (producing 95% of Canadian oil sands) plans to reduce its CO emissions2 22 megatonnes by 2030, against a target of 110 megatonnes set by the federal government, out of a total of 191 megatonnes emitted in 2019, according to CBC.