Canada Will Continue To Expand Oil & Gas While Meeting Climate Goals, And Other Lies

[hatrack]

EDIT

Let’s start with some emission truths. Canada has never met a single target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It stands out internationally as a laggard. At the end of 2019 it had reduced its GHG by just 1.2 per cent from 2005 levels. Two G7 nations have jacked up emissions since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016: Canada is the worst at 3.3 per cent followed by the United States at 0.6 per cent. In contrast, Italy reduced emissions by 4.4 per cent and Germany by 10.8 per cent.

In its annual energy report JP Morgan, no environmental champion, noted, “To keep global emissions flat, the developed world would need to reduce emissions by ~4 per cent per year, which is five to six times faster than the current pace.” Canada, a petro state, is not doing that. Instead emissions keep growing in almost every major sector including buildings, transportation and oil and gas production. Oil and gas production and exports now account for 26 per cent of emissions. That’s more than any other industrial sector except for transportation. To date, only one economic sector in Canada has actually cut emissions significantly between 2005 and 2019 and that’s the electricity sector, and all mainly due to the phasing out of coal.

The Canadian Energy Regulator (formerly the National Energy Board) came out with two emission scenarios last year, reports Hughes. One of CER’s projections assumed the Canada would do nothing further about climate change while the other assumed we would eventually do something through additional policies. For the record the CER has never assumed that Canada might actually reduce emissions.

In the do-something or “evolving scenario,” the CER assumes oil and gas production won’t peak until 2039. By 2050, in this scenario, Hughes found that the country would still be 32 per cent above an 80 per cent reduction target even if every economic sector other than oil and gas production is reduced to zero. “It is a complete disaster,” said Hughes. In the do-nothing scenario, well, emissions would be 94 per cent above targets by 2050.

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https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/06/07/Shining-Lies-Canadians-Told-Lowering-Emissions/

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. For all the things Canada does right, this is one of the biggest fuck ups.

Fossil fuels is such a huge part of Canada’s GDP, and has such a corrupting influence on even the far left NDP, as well as the Liberals and Conservatives. Unless/until it becomes a major issue with voters, I doubt much will change. People commute from all over Canada to live and work in the oil fields for big money, $100,000+/yr, so it’s going to be a tough nut to crack, and so far, Trudeau is mostly just giving it lip service. Reducing emissions through a reduction in fossil fuel production is as much of a political third rail as privatization of the health care system- no candidate other than the Green Party will touch it. They limit the discussion to carbon credits.

We have a federal election due in the fall; I’m guessing it will be all about the success/mismanagement of the pandemic, and the economy, and the environment will once again take a back seat, or be left behind completely.

Canada needs a Green Jobs plan like Biden’s- perhaps the NDP will propose something, but I’m not holding my breath.