Quebecers overwhelmingly support emissions cap for oil companies: survey

Almost nine out of 10 Quebecers think oil and gas industries should be required to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a new Léger poll released ahead of pending federal government regulations.

In the coming weeks, Ottawa is expected to publish draft regulations imposing a cap on GHG emissions in the oil and gas industries.

A new poll, commissioned by groups Nature Québec and Équiterre, shows that a vast majority of Quebecers -- 86 per cent -- support this measure.

Conversely, just 14 per cent of respondents believe the industry will reduce these GHG emissions on its own, without government intervention.

"With such a high percentage of Quebecers supporting regulation of Canada's oil and gas sector, the federal government is free to act and be ambitious," said Anne-Céline Guyon of Nature Québec.

Eighty-eight per cent of Francophone respondents said the government should impose a cap on oil companies, while 81 per cent of those whose mother tongue isn't French said the same.

Respondents whose highest level of education is a high school diploma are more likely (20 per cent) to believe oil companies will voluntarily reduce their GHGs than those with a university degree (12 per cent) and those with a college diploma (10 per cent).

'VOLUNTARY APPROACHES HAVE NEVER WORKED'

Between 1990 and 2021, Canada's GHG emissions increased by 14 per cent, but those from the oil and gas sector rose by 88 per cent, according to the Environment Ministry.

Oil and gas contributed 28 per cent of Canada's total GHG emissions in 2021, with the oil sands alone accounting for almost half of that (13 per cent).

"Since voluntary approaches have never worked in this sector, the rapid adoption and implementation of strong cap-and-trade regulations is essential to ensure a rapid and equitable energy transition in Canada," said Andréanne Brazeau of Équiterre.

Reacting to the survey, she added, "we have no intention of swallowing what Pathways Alliance would have us believe with its greenwashing campaigns."

Pathways Alliance is a consortium of Canada's largest oil sands companies.

'GREENWASHING' INVESTIGATION

In a press release published on its website, Pathways Alliance said it fears the emissions cap soon to be proposed by Trudeau's government "will be based on impractical timeframes and trajectories."

The group says it "has proposed to work with government to determine a realistic trajectory for further reductions; specifically, ones that are technically, economically, and executionally feasible."

The alliance claims to be committed to carbon neutrality and believes it can reduce its emissions by 22 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.

To achieve this, it's counting on carbon capture technologies, in which the federal government has invested a great deal of money, but which have yet to prove their effectiveness.

On the Pathways Alliance website, the group's president, Kendall Dilling, wrote that investments of $70 to $80 billion are needed to mitigate oil sands emissions.

Canada's Competition Bureau is currently investigating whether the Pathways Alliance is engaging in deceptive marketing practices by claiming that oil development is on the road to "carbon neutrality."

Greenpeace, which lodged the complaint, argues that the industry's carbon neutrality plan doesn't consider GHGs emitted during the use of oil, which is mainly exported and burned elsewhere in the world.

RECORD PRODUCTION AND FOCUS ON OIL SANDS

With crude oil production in Alberta reaching a record high in 2022, totalling just under 1.4 billion barrels, the willingness of these companies to reduce their GHG emissions is questionable, if a recent statement by Suncor Energy CEO Rich Kruger is anything to go by.

Suncor is part of Pathways Alliance. In August, Kruger told a shareholder meeting that the oil giant had focused too much in recent years on the energy transition and needed to return to an oil-centric business strategy.

"We're putting a bit of a disproportionate emphasis on long-term energy transition," he said, adding that while these activities are important, they're not what will make money for shareholders today.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said he was particularly disappointed to hear the head of a major corporation announce he was disengaging from sustainable development to "focus on short-term profit."

The minister sees this as further proof of the need to regulate the industry.

Suncor generated 17.4 million tonnes of GHGs in 2021, or 2.5 per cent of the national total. Suncor's emissions in 2021 were 50 per cent higher than in 2011.

Steven Guilbeault intends to publish a draft regulation this fall to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil and gas production; this cap will be gradually lowered over time.

The minister has not yet specified what the initial cap will be, but the Emissions Reduction Plan, published in 2022, forecasts an emissions drop of more than 40 per cent from the hydrocarbon industry by 2030.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 28, 2023.