愛污传媒

Skip to main content

Canada plans to finalize emissions cap by mid-2024, minister says

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 15, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 15, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Share
SINGAPORE -

Canada will likely publish the final regulations of a plan to cap and cut greenhouse gases from the oil and gas sector by mid-2024, its environment minister told Reuters on Thursday.

The government will table draft regulations on the plan by October and expects to publish the final regulations by mid-2024 after consultations with provinces, indigenous groups, civil society and industry, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Reuters.

Canada, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, lags many global peers in tackling emissions. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government sees the cap as a key element to enforce a sharp reduction in pollution from the oil and gas sector, responsible for 27% of the country's emissions.

The cap, which envisions limits on emissions or potentially raising the carbon price to incentivise driving down emissions, was first promised in Trudeau's 2021 election campaign. It has faced delays amid opposition from industry and some provincial lawmakers.

The government's framework for eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies released on Monday was expected to abolish C$1 billion ($759.82 million) in annual federal support for local oil, gas and coal production, Guilbeault said.

"As per our Glasgow commitment, we eliminated last year international fossil fuel subsidies. Now we're doing domestic," Guilbeault said in a phone interview, referring to the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at the COP26 summit in 2021.

Canada's announcement to eliminate such subsidies made it the first G20 country to deliver on a 2009 commitment to rationalize and phase out government support for the sector.

Climate policy analysts said the framework was an important step forward, but fell short by continuing to allow government support for oil and gas projects that plan to reduce emissions through technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Guilbeault said he estimated the tax credit for CCS projects in Canada to represent about C$15 billion worth of investments.

"We're not counting on CCS to solve all of our climate change problems. It will account for maybe 5% of our overall plan. It could be less than that by 2030," he said.

Canada will be introducing a regulation to ensure that its electricity grid is carbon neutral by 2035, Guilbeault said, a move he said would require support from CCS. He also expects CCS to contribute towards decarbonising "hard-to-abate" sectors such as aluminium and cement.

"We can anticipate that there will still be some gas on the grid in 2035 in Canada, but that gas would have to be abated. So some CCS probably in the electricity sector," Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist, said.

"You'll see that CCS has a role to play in ensuring that we achieve our 2030 targets, but it's not a magic bullet," he said.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; editing by Susan Fenton and Bernadette Baum)

IN DEPTH

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

A West Vancouver company has been ordered to repay a homebuyer's $1-million deposit after it failed to complete construction on the property in time.

During the campaign, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad has repeatedly said people are "dying on the streets" in the province 鈥 and on Tuesday he claimed to have witnessed that very thing in downtown Vancouver while he was on his way to the leaders' debate.

video

video

Dozens of cars were pulled out of the Detroit River in west Windsor on Tuesday, causing many questions for Windsorites.

Local Spotlight

Jeff Warner from Aidie Creek Gardens in the northern Ontario community of Englehart has a passion for growing big pumpkins and his effort is paying off in more ways than one.

Saskatchewan鈥檚 Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.

A B.C. couple is getting desperate 鈥 and creative 鈥 in their search for their missing dog.

Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.

A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.

Bernie Hicks, known as the 鈥楤atman of Amherst,鈥 always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.

Bubi鈥檚 Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.

Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.

Stay Connected