The Oil and Gas industry remains one of the biggest obstacles in Canada’s quest to cut emissions reports the National Observer. “Canada’s progress on significantly cutting pollution by 2030 is being undermined by growing emissions from the country’s oil and gas industry, according to the federal government’s annual emissions report to the United Nations.”
Cap on Emissions
Driven by their bottom line, the oil and gas lobby has been doing everything it can to delay and weaken climate policy including putting a cap on emissions. If done right, the cap on emissions regulations will set us on a path to meeting our climate targets for the first time ever — but if it’s watered down, emissions will continue to rise.
Although emissions from the oil and gas sector continue to climb, it’s encouraging to see that the overall annual emissions picture is showing signs of slowing down. “In fact, Canada’s 2021 emissions profile was 53 megatonnes smaller than it was in 2019, before the pandemic, and 62 megatonnes below 2005 levels,” said Environment and Climate Change Minister Guilbeault in a statement.
Canada is finally starting to bend its emissions curve, but the oil & gas and transportation sectors continue to spew more pollution into the air, undermining progress in other sectors, new data reveals. #cdnpoli https://t.co/79k1L2q2jb
— Below2°C (@Below2C_) May 18, 2023
No more free pass for Big Oil
“Canada released 691 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021—a 2.8 per cent increase in absolute emissions from 2020, but a 6.7 per cent decrease below 2005 levels. Achieving Canada’s 2030 climate target requires reducing annual emissions to no more than 440 megatonnes in 2030,” according to the Canadian Climate Institute.
As Canada’s largest source of emissions, the oil and gas industry has a responsibility to do its fair share. It’s up to us to make sure the government doesn’t give them a free pass. We must tell Liberal MPs across the country to stop caving to pressure from Big Oil. We can’t delay bold climate action any longer.
So on May 25th, join a massive Day of Action for a Bold Emissions Cap. Find an event near you or start your own action. Click on the Event Map now. This action is being led by Leadnow.
Message from Leadnow
If you don’t see an action in your community, you can sign up to host one! Start by clicking “No events nearby? Host your own!” at the bottom of the event map page. You’ll get access to a toolkit that will give you pointers on how to get your action off the ground, and there’s a support team that’s there to help you every step of the way. https://act.leadnow.ca/AllInForEmCap/
This is a chance not just to hold Big Oil to account, but also to redefine Canada’s role in the climate crisis by starting to actually meet our emissions reduction targets. This Day of Action will remind our MPs that the public is watching, and we expect real climate action.
(Parts of this piece are sourced from the Leadnow Toolkit for the Bold Emissions Cap action.)
ICYMI:
New Climate Rules for Canada’s Big Banks
The 440 Megatonnes Emissions Reduction Tracker
Canada Needs Strong Clean Car Standards
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.