Canada's oil, gas sector undermines efforts to diminish emissions

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Feb 2023 21:35
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The InfluenceMap think tank reveals an analysis showing that the oil and gas industry is actively undermining efforts to diminish emissions, arguing that their product could replace oil and gas from a sanctioned Russia.

An oil sands operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta (Reuters)

InfluenceMap, a climate think tank, warned, on Thursday, that Canada's oil and gas sector has actively undermined efforts to diminish greenhouse gas emissions and continues to do so.

Canada's oil and gas industry is one of the largest in the world, and the top six oil companies in the country comprise 67.8% of the sector's market value. InfluenceMap's analysis of those top 6 companies has revealed that the companies have not only resisted policy changes pertaining to the reduction of emissions but have also sought to further expand their oil and gas output.

Sofia Basheer, an analyst at InfluenceMap, said in a statement that "despite the industry's 'green' PR, the evidence of active campaigning against meaningful policy suggests an insincere commitment to climate action."

Basheer mentioned the industry's commitment to pursuing additional offshore oil and gas projects, liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities, and pipelines to the US as examples. The analyst further added that a few of the businesses also opposed an emissions cap that was put up last year.

In contrast, the industry advocated for the increase in Canadian oil and gas exports arguing that doing so may replace coal on the global scale, permitting a drop in overall emissions.

More recently, the sector asserted that Canadian oil and gas may substitute "hostile sources of energy" from nations such as Russia, especially given the collective West's anti-Russia sanctions.

This is the case in spite of pledges to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and in opposition to calls from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency to phase out fossil fuels quickly in order to keep global warming limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

With 179 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emitted in 2020, according to the Canadian government's figures, the oil and gas industry accounted for more than 25% of all national emissions between 1990 and 2020; an era in which Canada witnessed a 74% increase in the sector's emissions.