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BREAKING: Canada Leads G20 in Per Capita Public Financing to Oil and Gas

May 26, 2020
Reading time: 4 minutes

Max Goessler/Pixabay

Max Goessler/Pixabay

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Canada has lavished at least C$13.8 billion per year in public financing on oil and gas projects since signing on to the Paris climate agreement, making it the fossil industry’s highest per capita source of public finance in the G20, and their second-largest overall benefactor after China, according to a blistering new report issued today by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth U.S.

The funding is a large chunk of at least US$77 billion per year the G20 handed over to fossil projects between 2013 and 2018, OCI reports. The Canadian subsidies have been routed through Export Development Canada (EDC), the federal Crown corporation that has taken a lead in dispensing corporate relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As Canada prepares historic levels of public finance in response to COVID-19, much of which will flow through the EDC, the new report demonstrates that its public finance has to date been dramatically misaligned with what is needed to avoid the worst of climate change,” Oil Change says in a release.

“As the health and livelihoods of millions are at risk from the still unfolding COVID-19 crisis, it’s critical the federal government gets recovery spending right,” said report co-author Bronwen Tucker, OCI’s Edmonton-based research analyst.

“Right now, much of our stimulus money is flowing through Export Development Canada, and that’s alarming when it has such a deep bias towards oil and gas,” she added. “An institution that’s backed risky projects like the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline despite Indigenous rights violations and the climate crisis is not fit to finance a just recovery—at least not without serious reform.”

“Canada cannot claim to be a climate leader while it allows a Crown corporation to hand out over C$10 billion a year to oil and gas projects, while largely ignoring the clean energy sector,” agreed Julia Levin, climate and energy program manager at Environmental Defence Canada. “Paired with Export Development Canada’s notorious lack of transparency and the recent legislative changes that increased its financing limits, we are very concerned that the agency will risk public money—without public scrutiny—on loans to oil and gas companies that were facing insolvency long before COVID-19 appeared.”

“For years we’ve been calling on Ottawa to end Export Development Canada’s support for fossil fuels, and our calls have been met with silence,” added Above Ground Program Officer Karen Hamilton. “With Canada’s per capita public financing of fossil fuels now the highest in the world, will the government finally acknowledge the need to align its public finance policies with its climate commitments?”

The report concludes that public finance for fossil fuels was essentially unchanged in the first three years after the Paris deal was finalized, landing at US$77 billion per year from 2016 to 2018 compared to $76.6 billion from 2013 to 2015. That finding was “alarming at a time when avoiding the worst of climate change means no new finance should flow to oil, gas, or coal,” Oil Change writes. The research also put EDC’s performance in context: “Export credit agencies (ECAs) were the worst public finance actors, providing nearly 14 times as much support for fossil fuels than clean energy, with US$40.1 billion a year for fossils and just $2.9 billion for clean,” the release states.

And “most of this finance flowed to wealthier countries. Eight of the top 15 recipients were high- or upper-middle-income countries by World Bank classifications. Six were lower-middle income, and only one low-income.”

The report calls on G20 countries and multilateral development banks to:

  • Support a global, just pandemic recovery to zero-carbon societies, “instead of further locking in fossil fuel production and use”;
  • Put an end to public finance for all oil, gas, and coal projects;
  • Rapidly scale up investment in “clean energy, energy efficiency, just transition plans, and universal energy access”;
  • Ensure timely, transparent reporting on all energy finance initiatives.

“At this point in the climate emergency, continued investment in fossil fuels creates risks across society,” OCI and Friends of the Earth state. “Private and public investors alike will face stranded assets as decarbonization efforts scale up (transition and legal risk), or overinvestment will result in severe climate impacts from excess carbon dioxide emissions that will bring about shocks to the entire economy (physical risk).

But with governments around the world “preparing public spending packages of a magnitude they previously deemed unthinkable,” the two organizations add, “the fossil fuel sector has been quick to opportunistically respond to this with requests for massive bailouts, new subsidies, regulatory rollbacks, and the postponement of climate measures.”

The report cites Canada as a country where “public outcry likely helped lessen the magnitude of fossil fuel bailouts initially proposed”. However, “early support in response to COVID-19 included a US$5.3-billion investment and loan guarantee in Keystone XL pipeline from the Government of Alberta, US$1.9 billion in aid for abandoned well clean-up and methane leaks without fixing the regulatory gaps that allow polluters to shirk these responsibilities, a multi-billion-dollar credit facility for small and medium oil and gas producers through Export Development Canada (EDC), and other public finance programs oil and gas producers are eligible for through EDC and the Canadian Development Investment Corporation.”



in Canada, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy Subsidies, International Agencies & Studies, Jobs & Training, Oil & Gas, Pipelines / Rail Transport, Shale & Fracking, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

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Comments 6

  1. Peter Bailey says:
    2 years ago

    Smarten up Canada.. This is not only bad economics and poor use of taxpayers’ money in an attempt to bolster an industry that has collapsed nationally, regionally and globally, but it is utter madness and negligence on behalf of both the Justin Trudeau Liberal and the former Stephen Harper Conservative governments. Smarten up.

    Reply
    • Wes Rusnell says:
      2 years ago

      Well said!!

      Reply
  2. Chuck says:
    2 years ago

    Well the federal government will get sued if it closes a pipeline and one province makes propane shortage a national issue so I don’t see the government stopping fossil fuel backing

    Reply
  3. LeeAnn McKenna says:
    2 years ago

    So, Canada leads the G20 in per capital public financing for Oil and Gas. This is NOT how we want to lead the world!
    This is the moment to pivot to green. While providing transition funding and training for workers currently employed in a sector that needs to go down—if we are to live—re-allocate those billions to retooling for green energy projects. The jobs are there waiting. The planet cannot take any more of this abuse through extraction, transportation and burning. It’s not just one of those three things but all of them. Killing us.

    Enough. Get to it. Oil & Gas needs to spending its money on cleaning up thousands of abandoned wells on public and private property. One cent more on new pipelines is a clear sign of incompetence in a government that claims to be putting human and creation care above all else.

    My family is benefitting gratefully from the good work that is being done in supplying safety nets for so many of us. Thank you. Now let’s get out of fossil fuels, rip up contracts with BAE and Lockheed Martin (I’m sure they’ll understand) for another pivot: towards an end to war as a solution to anything. Shelve plans to increase our DND budget by yet more billions—that should go into filling all of the gaps in the social contract that is your primary calling as government.

    Reply
  4. Dian says:
    2 years ago

    When Will we learn? Pipelines unattended across Canada are leaking oil into the ground, poisoning livestock and birds . This has been going on for years. Oil prices dropping. Fracking has proven to be dangerous and costly. There are other, greener, more viable, more cost effective sources of energy out there. They have been available for years. However, they would not benefit theBIG shareholders, would they?
    It is time that government remembers two things
    One: They are employed by taxpayers. Taxpayers pay their salaries and very sizeable benefits.
    Two: It is taxpayers money they are spending, NOT their own.
    Decisions made should benefit ALL citizens equally, not just the rich and powerful who donate to campaign funds. Decisions made will have consequences that span generations. Every decision, if made with that knowledge in mind , will hopefully be one that leaves the Province, the Country, and the people in it, better.

    Reply

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