Canada Close To Unveiling Draft Plan For An Oil And Gas Emissions Cap

Canada’s federal government expects to publish by the end of the year a draft plan on capping and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said, commenting on one of the most controversial climate policies in Canada in recent years.

The oil and gas industry, especially the sector in Alberta, has criticized previous strict proposals as too restrictive. The federal government, for its part, doesn’t want to force production limits on oil and gas operators and regulate heavily one of Canada’s biggest industries. 

“But by the end of the year, you will have a pretty good idea of how we will go about that,” Minister Guilbeault said at a conference on Thursday, as quoted by Bloomberg.

The federal government is working to propose an emissions cap “that pushes for as many reductions as we can see in the sector as possible, without shutting in production that’s not linked to global declines in demand,” Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said at the same conference.

Canada will exceed its target of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by at least 75% from 2012 levels by 2030, Catherine Stewart, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change, said in September.

“Reducing oil and gas sector emissions will be key to delivering meaningful climate action, creating sustainable growth, and providing affordable sources of clean energy,” the federal government said.

“Making investments now will position the North American oil and gas industry among the cleanest in the world and enable it to compete in an increasingly decarbonizing industry.”

Canada’s oil and gas companies have managed to boost production from conventional resources while reducing carbon dioxide and methane emissions over the decade to 2021, the industry association CAPP said at the end of August. Between 2012 and 2021, CAPP said, Canada’s oil and gas producers increased their total conventional hydrocarbon output by 21%, while emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent were reduced by 24%.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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