Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/canadas-oil-industry-odds-with-trudeau-over-new-2030-climate-plans-2022-03-31/
Canada has emission reduction goals which rely heavily on the oil and gas industry to do their part. Oil and gas is Canada’s highest-polluting sector, accounting for 26% of total emissions. The goal of reducing overall emissions 40%-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 were implemented by the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. In order to achieve this, the oil and gas sectors will need to make big cuts. Canada has not achieved any of their emission reduction plans in the past and gas pollution rose 19% between 2005 and 2019. Canada’s new Emissions Reduction Plan plans to cut oil and gas emissions by 42% from current levels by 2030. To do so they are planning on techniques such cutting methane output and embracing new technologies including carbon capture and storage. The Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero Alliance is even aiming for net zero emissions by 2050.
It seems that the oil and gas sectors are not doing their fair share of cutting carbon emissions. This leaves other sectors to overcompensate, or results in continuously not achieving their climate goal. The technology that would help cut carbon emissions is the carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS works by capturing and permanently putting emissions underground. The only problem is that this is an expensive technique that would require a lot of funding. Canada is allocating some of the tax budget to this, but it seems that they will also need private funding. Funding seems to be necessary for this technology because if it becomes more common, it may become more affordable as we learn more about the process, and therefore other countries can adopt these processes as well.
As other countries are amplifying their oil and gas production to compensate for the loss of Russian oil and gas, it is necessary to become more advanced in these processes to reduce carbon emissions. The effect on many countries from sanctions on Russia shows how interconnected the globe is. As countries realize they can’t always heavily rely on one other country for essential products, other countries are beginning to produce more oil and gas to be more self-sufficient, or to be able to have more options of countries to import oil from. This all leads to more carbon emissions when these industries are operating in environmentally harming ways. As we have talked about in class, climate change is a universal issue and it is in every country’s national interest to suppress climate change.