Investments no substitute for climate plan

CALGARY — NINA LOTHIAN, Director, Fossil Fuels at the Pembina Institute, made the following statement in response to the Government of Alberta’s announcement of investments in emissions reduction from the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund and the Federal Low Carbon Economy Leadership (LCELF) fund:

“We are pleased to see the province of Alberta continue to invest carbon tax revenue in emission reductions projects across Alberta’s industrial sector. These investments in innovation and actual emission reduction are a key to the province’s decarbonization efforts.

“Alberta’s emissions in 2019 were 276 million tonnes (38 per cent of Canada’s emissions), including 141 Mt from oil and gas. The projects supported in today’s announcement represent an estimated reduction of 7 Mt cumulative by 2030. These announcements would carry more impact if they were elements of a comprehensive province-wide climate plan that was aligned with Canada’s net-zero commitments.

“Alberta needs a climate plan that articulates an end-goal and the emission reduction trajectory to get there – a percentage target of emissions reduction by 2030 and net-zero by 2050 – across all sectors of Alberta’s economy. This would provide clarity and policy certainty for industry and investors and would align with the federal government’s announcement at COP26 today to put a hard cap on Canada’s oil and gas emissions. It would also remove investment risks by providing the government across all sectors with direction to systematically remove policy and regulatory barriers to investments in decarbonization.”

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Note: This information was corrected on Nov. 3 to note that the supported projects represent an estimated cumulative reduction of 7 Mt by 2030, not an annual reduction.