Canada’s main oil producers at the moment are united in attempting to realize net-zero greenhouse fuel emissions by 2050, calling their plan good for the financial system. However one group says it is a public relations push to get federal cash.
Beneath an alliance introduced Wednesday, the nation’s 5 largest oilsands producers will mix forces, cash and know-how to scale back emissions in one of the vital carbon-intensive jurisdictions on the planet.
The alliance consists of Canadian Pure Assets, Cenovus Vitality, Imperial Oil, MEG Vitality and Suncor Vitality, which collectively function 90 per cent of the nation’s oilsands manufacturing.
“We discovered that by working collectively we will do that sooner, we will speed up the outcomes and drive down the prices,” mentioned Mark Little, president and CEO of Suncor.
A key joint effort can be to construct a carbon-sequestration trunk line for all the firms’ services to deposit captured atmospheric carbon dioxide underground close to Chilly Lake, Alta.
Nonetheless, no income sources are related to sequestration and storing emissions, Little mentioned, so the businesses should work with authorities on public-private partnerships to assist fund the undertaking “to ensure that that is going to make sense for our shareholders.”
There is not any particular greenback quantity quoted for the funding pitch, however the oil firms hope assist comes from the federal and Alberta governments.
Suncor’s CEO mentioned it is price investing within the plan, including all the initiative goes to value about $2.5 billion a 12 months for an business that is producing authorities revenue of about $15 billion a 12 months, as the businesses additionally faucet into rising emissions-reducing applied sciences.
Push to maneuver away from fossil fuels
Keith Stewart, a senior vitality strategist with Greenpeace Canada, mentioned world buyers and the Worldwide Vitality Company say attaining net-zero emissions ought to imply stepping into renewable vitality tasks and out of pumping oil, and buyers need to see company plans that steer away from fossil fuels.
“That is what the market is demanding, that is what the science calls for,” Stewart mentioned.
Little known as the brand new initiative a “super-extension” of 2012’s Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), geared toward growing options to issues tied to the oilsands. Stewart known as COSIA largely a “stalling tactic.”
He mentioned there are options to extending the oil enterprise, however the executives “simply cannot think about that world.”
“And if they cannot think about it, they’re gonna find yourself being the Blockbuster Video of the twenty first century, [which] did not acknowledge what the risk from Netflix was,” Stewart mentioned.
“We actually must see this as a public relations push, and a push for presidency funding. They actually need to get critical with altering their marketing strategy.”
Stewart mentioned the know-how is accessible now to change from oil, fuel and coal to renewable vitality, and in keeping with the Worldwide Vitality Company, net-zero means not constructing new fossil gas infrastructure.
He mentioned the alliance thinks it “can preserve promoting oil ceaselessly, and that is simply not what the science says.”
