Canada’s climate promises risk putting the country out of step with its economic competitors, the director of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said on Friday.
Tim McMillan says that as Canada raises its environmental ambition at events like this week’s climate conference in Scotland, the federal government must work harder to attract the rest of the world.
“No country can do it alone,” he said.
“I think that has been the challenge that Canada has had, since we have taken some very clear steps that are inconsistent with the rest of the world. You can only do that for a period of time before moving your investment to those jurisdictions. “
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McMillan said Canada’s carbon tax, the only one among the world’s top 10 oil producers, and its increasingly stringent regulations on methane release are examples of where Canada may be singing only when it should be part of a choir. .
“Canada hopes to step forward in a very ambitious way again before most other countries,” he said.
“I’m not saying that Canada shouldn’t take leadership roles or that we shouldn’t constantly improve, because we are. (But) we need a realistic global approach to attract others. “
Until that happens, McMillan said the industry is justified in asking for massive amounts of public support to pay for projects that would store carbon underground or develop hydrogen. Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney has put that figure at $ 32 billion.
“In achieving the goals that have been set, the government has a unique role to help,” said McMillan. “We need that job.”
McMillan’s group released a document signed by nine global energy organizations saying that the industry will be an essential part of the transition away from fossil fuels.
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It requires an international system that allows countries to obtain emission reduction credits for actions such as the sale of lower-carbon natural gas to replace coal. It also calls for some form of carbon import tax to protect domestic industries from competition from jurisdictions with lower climate targets.
Not in the short term, said Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
“It is too early to think that we can get to the essential details of what an accreditation system would look like,” he said from Glasgow on Friday.
He said Canada has started talking about a so-called “border adjustment” with the United States and the European Union.
“The border adjustment mechanism is certainly promising.”
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Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, also in Glasgow, disagreed that Canada is straying too far from its peers.
He noted that an agreement signed this week restricting international public funding of new fossil fuel projects has broad support.
“We signed alongside countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, which have large oil and gas industries,” he said.
A commitment to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent was led by the United States and signed this week by 103 countries. The major Canadian oil companies that account for the majority of the country’s production promised net zero carbon emissions long before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formalized it in Glasgow.
“The majors have committed to net zero by 2050 and what we’re telling them is, ‘Okay, let’s team up and build a framework around that,” Wilkinson said.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca