Province unveils climate change strategy

“Continued expansion of oil sands and similar unconventional fuels in Canada and beyond is incompatible with limiting climate warming to a level that society can handle without widespread harm”, they wrote.

The Government of Alberta just announced a new climate change strategy for the province.

“It will help us access new markets for our energy products, and diversify our economy with renewable energy and energy efficiency technology”, Notley said.

Said Ed Whittingham of the clean energy think-tank the Pembina Institute: “I think the world needs more of this kind of leadership”.

Alberta has released its long-awaited report on climate change policy that includes a carbon tax that would apply across the economy.

Canadian Natural Resources has a lot at stake.

In an interview Monday, Shell Canada’s outgoing president Lorraine Mitchelmore – a vocal supporter of the policy – said the feedback she’s heard so far from others in the industry has been “pretty positive”.

“WWF Canada is pleased to see the progressive steps proposed by Alberta’s climate change advisory panel”. Andrew Leach, a University of Alberta energy economist, led the panel, which received thousands of pages of submissions from citizens, industry and environmental groups.

“This is the right plan for our province, and now is the right time to implement it”, Phillips said.

Already, seven in 10 Canadians are living under a few type of carbon regime, from British Columbia’s carbon tax, to the cap-and-trade programs of Quebec and Ontario. We know that climate policy in Alberta has been notoriously susceptible to manipulation by big oil, and that big oil has been able to undermine emissions targets time and time again around the globe.

“Six million barrels of tar sands per day are currently permitted, but under this plan and under existing technology, half of that – three million barrels per day that would have burned – will now stay in the ground”, Karen Mahon, director of ForestEthics Canada, told the National Observer.

“Canada is charting a new direction”. Canada has just elected a Liberal Prime Minister, Justin Trudean, son of Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudean. That’s where society is ultimately headed.

“The sun is setting on the tar sands industry”, Kretzmann said in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress. “This is what climate leadership looks like and that is why ForestEthics supports it”.

“We will work with the government as these principles are put into practice, and we encourage the province to follow a balanced approach, recognizing that our sector can only become a global supplier of responsibly produced oil and natural gas if we are competitive on the world stage”. Third, the province’s oil sands emissions will be capped at 100 million metric tons.

“Based on this announcement, Alberta’s carbon pollution could soon peak and start to decline”.

“What’s critically important is that the Premier has committed to an orderly transition that ensures system reliability and price stability for our customers, given that it is now certain that coal-fired generation will be phased out by 2030, and that the province’s policies will not unnecessarily strand capital”. Renewable energy sources, primarily wind, would make up 30 percent of electricity production by 2030.

Green groups such as 350.org praised it as a good first step, but called for more continued action.

A cap of 100 megatonnes (MT) on GHG emissions from oil sands operations, subject to certain exceptions for cogeneration power sources and new upgrading capacity.

Treaty No. 6 Grand Chief Tony Alexis billed it as an “historic event” for Alberta, saying that “we are now in a place where, industry, government and First Nations can move forward together on climate change”.