This is a time to be a sceptic. When somebody tells you Canada will be net zero in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 30 years, give them the raspberry. Do you, or they, expect to be able to check it out or prove it in 30 years? It is a hollow promise from shallow people. Only actions can hold promise.
We can start by reducing our carbon footprint now.
Despite the steadily increasing population in this country, Canada has stayed in the range of 700 million tons of GHG emissions for the past 20 years. We drive gas-guzzling cars, we heat our homes, we fly around our country, we even pass gas. And despite the efforts to conserve, such as ending coal fired electrical generation in Ontario and the mainly unplanned reduction in manufacturing, we have no reduction to report.
It is too bad that there is no general agreement that a carbon tax is an effective incentive to manufacturers and farmers and energy producers. The problem is that a tax of $50 per ton of GHG is never going to be effective. It is when the tax is in the $250 range that manufacturers and investors will see the value in reducing emissions. The cost savings in reducing emissions have to be meaningful.
Canada could never expect to reach net zero emissions if the government had approved the Teck open pit mine in Northern Alberta. That extraction process alone was slated to produce 260,000 barrels a day of tar sands bitumen. Whether you upgraded that to synthetic crude oil in Canada or in India, it was going to add millions of tons more of GHG emissions to be refined into oil products and then burnt in cars, trucks, planes or diesel equipment. You can hardly ship it off shore and not be responsible for the emissions.
As it is, there is no need for the Trans Mountain pipeline to be twinned. It will take time to reduce bitumen production but eventually the capturing of the carbon produced and its safe storage more than a mile in the earth will allow for net zero refining.
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Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
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