In an effort to reduce emissions, Alberta continues to pump millions of dollars into carbon capture technologies.
This week, Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) announced that it was investing $40 million of public money in 11 carbon capture projects to help position the province for even greater funding opportunities from Ottawa. The ERA funding also aligns with the province’s plan to invest more than $300 million over the next four years in more carbon sequestration projects.
Oil and gas projects, electricity generation, cement and others received financing. Canadian Natural Resources, Heartland Generation, Lafarge Canada, Capital Power Generation and Strathcona Resources each got $5 million from the fund. Entropy Canada, Agrium Canada Partnership, Enmax Energy, City of Medicine Hat, Vault 44.01, and Suncor Energy also received funding ranging from $950,000 to $3.3 million. The province says these investments “could generate more than $20 billion in capital expenditures.”
“We are serious about advancing and commercializing CCUS technologies in this province,” said Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage, former Enbridge Lobbyist. “Carbon Capture Kickstart is another important investment that will help improve the competitiveness of our energy sector and strengthen Alberta’s position as a world leader in the development of CCUS technologies.”
The federal government is also committed to carbon sequestration plans. In April, he unveiled plans for a contentious carbon capture investment tax credit that would make $2.6 billion available over five years to trap and store planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. Last week, Natural Resources Canada opened a call for proposals invest $50 million in large-scale CCUS projects.
But critics say this is the wrong approach for several reasons. Concerns from climate experts and advocates are that CCUS is expensive, doesn’t work as advertised, and isn’t relevant to short-term emission reduction targets, while renewables are cheaper and more proven.
Existing carbon capture projects, such as SaskPower’s Boundary Dam or Shell’s Quest facility near Edmonton, have failed to reduce emissions as promised. Boundary Dam consistently failed to meet his 90 percent catch rate and dropped his target to an easier 65 percent that he still fails to consistently meet. Quest’s capture rate is so bad that it actually emits more greenhouse gases than it captures, according to a report by the international NGO Global Witness.
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Even if these projects work as advertised, they do nothing to capture the 80 percent of emissions that come from fossil fuels when the product is finally burned. Carbon capture directly addresses the fraction of emissions related to its extraction and transport to the consumer.
“Not all emission reductions are created equal,” said International Institute for Sustainable Development policy adviser Vanessa Corkal. Canadian National Observer. “There seems to be a tacit acceptance that this is a viable way forward, and I don’t think we’ve sufficiently challenged that assumption.
“It’s really important to substantiate how realistic this particular solution is in the global context and what key experts are saying,” he added.
Alberta is investing millions in carbon capture to cut emissions and help businesses get even more of Ottawa’s public money, but critics say the plan risks locking out fossil fuels in the long run. #cdnpoli #CCUS
Climate experts agree on the role of CCUS in meeting the Paris AgreementThe goal of keeping global warming to 1.5C should be extremely limited and used only for vital industries for which there are limited options. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers that CCUS is a tool of last resort because while it could play an important role in helping to decarbonise sectors such as cement and steel manufacturing, it is ultimately a relatively expensive and ineffective technology compared to switching to renewable energy sources or investments in energy efficiency.
Experts in Canada urged the federal government earlier this year to abandon its “pipe dream” of carbon capture. A signed letter by more than 400 academics from across the country called on Ottawa to scrap its planned investment tax credit and shattered the technology’s raison d’être.
“Simply put, instead of replacing fossil fuels, carbon sequestration prolongs our dependence on them at a time when preventing catastrophic climate change requires reducing fossil fuel use,” the letter says. “Relying on CCUS preserves status quo fossil fuel development, which must be scaled back to meet global climate commitments.”