Do you remember what your New Year’s resolution was?
If you do, the bigger question is, “Are you sticking to your resolutions?”
For most of us, the answer is no.
And the province of Alberta is no different.
One year after Alberta introduced its Emissions Reduction and Energy Development plan, the province has made “no meaningful progress,” according to a recent analysis by an independent third party.
In fact, the provincial government has not even begun stakeholder consultations to identify how it will reduce emissions across all sectors.
It has neither set interim emissions targets toward the goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 nor developed clear policies for short-term emission reductions.
Essentially, the province is acting like a person who committed to daily gym visits but ended up only going once a month.
Waffling Is Bad for the Economy
“In 2024, decarbonization policy is economic policy. Alberta is placing its economy at risk as it falls further behind in having a clear plan to reduce emissions, especially across its heavy industries, and embrace diversification of the economy to the clean growth sectors of the future,” the Pembina Institute’s MC Bouchard told Town and Country Today.
Alberta’s plan is to match national and international commitments to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
But without follow up and action, a plan is just a worthless piece of paper and an exercise in public relations.
It’s a gym membership going unused.
Missing Targets
Since 2005, only two provinces have not made progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Alberta is one of them.
Our province’s emissions have grown 9 percent, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
On the bright side, Alberta is phasing out the last of its coal-fired power plants this year. According to the provincial government, the phaseout has cut electricity grid emissions by more than 50 percent since 2005.
That’s good news.
The bad news is that while the rest of the world is reducing oil and gas production, Alberta wants to increase production, all while hamstringing the development of renewables in the province.
Pembina’s recent independent review points out that “without prompt and decisive action to reduce emissions from Alberta’s heavy industrial sectors (especially oil and gas production), the gains of the coal phase-out risk being undermined.”
Oil and gas is Canada’s biggest climate polluter, accounting for 28 percent of the country’s total emissions.
The pollution from each barrel of oil from Alberta’s oil sands can be 30 percent more than regular oil.
Alberta’s oil sands produce half of the oil and gas sector’s emissions.
However, a study published last year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that these figures could be as much as 65 percent below the actual amount.
That means any effort to reduce emissions in Alberta needs to target the oil sands.
Carbon Capture Isn’t the Silver Bullet
Recently, the province and industry have been hyping carbon capture and storage as key for meeting its reduction targets.
However, Capital Power’s recent withdrawal from the $2.4 billion Genesse carbon capture and storage project near Edmonton because it is not economically viable calls into question such strategies.
As previously reported here, expensive carbon capture projects, which depend on taxpayer money to be built, allow big oil to keep polluting while potentially impacting freshwater and local communities.
In addition, actual reductions of these mega projects are minuscule.
Carbon capture and storage is equivalent to doing 10 jumping jacks after eating a dozen donuts.
The recent Pembina Institute report has four key recommendations for the Alberta government:
● Get serious about setting sector-by-sector emissions targets;
● Strengthen existing regulations;
● Lower oil sands emission limits; and
● Be tougher on oil and gas methane emissions.
Essentially, Pembina has looked at Alberta’s gym plan and has given them a failing grade for not even showing up.
