Posted at 5:00 a.m.
(Ottawa) The Trudeau government will have to significantly tighten the screws on the oil and gas industry in Canada if it is to meet its goal of reducing emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, learned The Press.
Without the adoption of new binding measures affecting this sector, which accounts for 26% of the country’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Canada risks missing the target it has committed to the United Nations in July 2021, i.e. a 40 to 45% reduction in emissions.
According to an assessment conducted by the federal Ministry of the Environment, the reduction in GHG emissions would barely reach 34% if Ottawa does not revise upwards its requirements for this industry, confirmed a government source who requested anonymity. because she was not authorized to discuss this file publicly. And this smaller reduction takes into account all the measures announced so far, including the Trudeau government’s environmental plan unveiled in 2020 and the measures contained in the 2021 federal budget.
If we don’t ask the oil and gas sector to do more, we won’t be able to achieve a 40% reduction. Mathematically, it doesn’t work.
A government source
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is due to present a new climate plan by the end of March. This plan must detail how the federal government intends to achieve its GHG reduction objectives by the end of this decade. The Trudeau government is also committed to ensuring that Canada achieves carbon neutrality by 2050. It even passed legislation to this effect last June, which also casts in concrete legislative concrete reduction targets between 40% and 45% below 2005 levels by 2030, and a review of targets every five years from 2025.
PHOTO PATRICK DOYLE, REUTERS
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of the Environment of Canada
According to our information, Minister Guilbeault intends to impose more stringent regulations on the oil and gas sector, in particular by capping GHG emissions for the fossil fuel industry, then reducing them. Result: this industry will be called upon to reduce its emissions by 35% by 2030 instead of only 18% in the first calculations of the Trudeau government.
During the last election campaign, the Liberals promised to impose a cap on emissions and a gradual reduction in the oil and gas sector until they reach carbon neutrality by 2050. In the past, environmental groups have often criticized the federal government to be a dunce in the fight against climate change because of the lack of regulations on emissions from the oil and gas sector.
“If we don’t ask this sector to do more, we will never be able to reach our targets if we continue to add new oil projects,” added this government source.
Alarming IPCC report
Minister Guilbeault must unveil his new environmental plan in the wake of the publication of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warns that the consequences of global warming are faster and more significant than we didn’t believe it until now.
“The extent and magnitude of climate change impacts are greater than estimated in previous assessments,” the IPCC said in its report released last week.
“Any further delay in implementing preemptive, concerted, global action on adaptation and mitigation will cause us to miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future. sustainable for all,” it added.
Bay du Nord mining project
What’s more, Mr. Guilbeault must decide on an ambitious project to build a new drilling platform for the production of oil and gas in the Flemish Pass, about 500 kilometers east of Newfoundland, from here 40 days.
The Bay du Nord exploitation project, which is piloted by the Norwegian company Equinor, would have a lifespan of around 30 years and would extract 1 billion barrels of oil thanks to the construction of a floating installation in the ‘Atlantic Ocean.
Radio-Canada recently reported that the federal cabinet was very divided on this issue. This also explains why the decision, which was to be announced on March 6, was postponed for 40 days.
The majority of Quebec ministers oppose it, aware that it could tear to pieces their credibility in the fight against climate change. But influential ministers like the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, just like the Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, are in favor of it, according to Radio-Canada.
I do not see how in Quebec we could defend this project. This goes against everything we advocated during the last election campaign. Politically, it is indefensible.
A liberal source at The Press
During the last campaign, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals said they were prepared to reject any oil and gas development project that would not allow Canada to meet the objective of reducing GHG emissions from the fossil fuel industry.