With Canada in the process of drafting crucial regulations to curb the oil and gas sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, climate advocates are enlisting Canadians in a postcard-writing campaign to remind Members of Parliament that the interests of all people in Canada must take precedence over corporate bottom lines and intensive industry lobbying.
“Canada can’t meet our climate targets without a cap on oil and gas emissions,” reads one suggested message for a collection of postcards made available by a group of climate organizations hoping to sway parliamentarians in a “make-or-break moment for climate action in Canada.”
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The message to MPs—drafted jointly by Climate Action Network-Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Defence Canada, For Our Kids, Mères au front, and West Coast Environmental Law—echoes the conclusions of an independent federal advisory panel, which declared in January that Canada would be “unlikely to attain its 2030 emission target” without an oil and gas emissions cap.
“Unlike other heavy industry sectors like steel and cement, emissions from the oil and gas sectors are still rising, and the track record of the oil and gas sector suggests self-regulation will be difficult,” wrote the Net-Zero Advisory Board (NZAB) in its annual report. “Emissions from the oil and gas sector rose by 18.8% between 2005 and 2019 while emissions from the rest of the economy declined by 6.1%.”
The NZAB extended its “full support in favour of adopting a rigorous but fair cap on oil and gas emissions,” a cap that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first promised during the 2021 election campaign. Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault followed up with a 29-page discussion paper on potential mechanisms in July, 2022.
Oil and gas executives responded defensively to a discussion paper that had already taken fire for being unduly deferential to the industry. “It is very aggressive and stretches the capability of what is technically and economically feasible,” Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson said last August. His comments landed shortly after Imperial reported C$2.41 billion in profits for the year’s second quarter, six times more than the $366 million it earned over the same period in 2021.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) President Tim McKay said the cap was “unnecessary and overly ambitious in light of our stated preference for government and industry to continue to work together… to achieve an already announced emissions reduction target.” CNRL’s 2022 second-quarter profit of $3.5 billion was more than double that of 2021.
Last November, Guilbeault told The Canadian Press that an emissions cap would be in place by the end of 2023. “We will have draft regulations maybe by the spring, at the latest in the first half of the year,” he said. “And then the goal is to have the complete regulations by before Christmas, which is, you know, record level time to develop regulations.”
With the draft expected this June, postcard writers are requested to urge their MPs for a “strong cap,” one that would curb the fossil fuel sector’s carbon pollution by 60% from 2005 levels by 2030. “At the very least, the cap should be on par with Canada’s whole-of-economy goal of 45% reductions by 2030,” write the Cap Pollution Card organizers.
But it may end up being lower. In its March, 2022 Emissions Reduction Plan, Ottawa referred to a “projected contribution for the oil and gas sector of a 31% reduction from 2005 levels, which is equivalent to 42% from 2019 levels and will guide the government’s work to develop the cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector.”
The post cards also call for emission cuts that are immediate, real, and borne entirely by the sector: “No delays. No offsets. No handouts.”
But Ottawa has signalled a willingness to allow oil and gas developers some use of “flexibility mechanisms.”
“Basically, these companies would be able to use carbon credits to meet some of the regulatory emissions reductions requirements,” Guilbeault told CBC News last July. “But again, it would be for a short amount of time, for a short period, two years, and it would be in limited quantity.”
The postcard campaign urges MPs to “please put the interests of all people in Canada ahead of the profits of a few oil and gas corporations.”
You can compose a postcard here. It will be delivered to your local MP by Canada Post.
