Canada considering how to tackle oil production emissions

Canadian officials acknowledge that carbon emissions from the country’s oil industry are likely to grow even as they look for ways to meet an overall country-wide emission reduction goal, CBC News reported Wednesday.

According to government documents, emissions from Canada’s oil producing tar sands are expected to increase by more than 100 million metric tons over 2005 levels by 2030.

{mosads}Canada’s environment minister, Leona Aglukkaq, has set a goal of reducing the country’s overall emissions by 30 percent over that same time. The country’s climate regulations do not extend to its oil sands industry.

Officials have floated the idea of buying emissions credits to “counterbalance increasing emissions from the oil sands,” a possibility Canada acknowledged in its formal climate filings with the United Nations. 

“One approach that Canada could consider is that used by Japan that supports investment in clean technologies in exchange for a portion of the resulting emission reductions,” a government spokesman told CBC News. 

The country could also require companies to reduce the amount of energy they use to produce oil and gas. Officials have considered negotiating oil and gas emission reduction strategies with the United States and Mexico.

“We have been very clear that in order to protect the Canadian economy, we want to take cooperative action with our continental trading partners, particularly the United States, in integrated sectors of the economy, such as the oil and gas sector,” the spokesman said.