Accelerated climate action requires balance between ambition and attainability

The following statement on the federal government’s ‘2030 Emissions Reduction Plan’ is attributable to Deborah Yedlin, President and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce:

Calgary, March 29, 2022 – “Outlining a clear path to net-zero is essential to meeting our shared climate goals. However, to enable stability in the labour force and achieve real emissions reductions, this path must provide investor confidence and regulatory certainty, and be accompanied by increased investment in commercialization, adoption, and export of emissions reductions technology.

“Achieving a 40 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 hinges on a regulatory framework that supports stability and certainty to facilitate bold investments in technology. Industry relies on clarity from government on the future of the emissions cap, stringency of future climate policy, and details of investment tax credits. It requires policy to be neutral to all sectors, technology agnostic, and account for the impact of layered costs and regulation.

“While commodity prices have recently resulted in high profit margins for energy, they are inflated by a tenuous geopolitical situation that we hope is short lived. Industry will therefore require government investment in technology through public-private partnerships. An acceleration of climate targets requires a shift in focus from relatively low-cost early-stage technologies that will yield emissions reductions in decades to investment in commercial demonstration projects that will yield commercial-ready projects by 2030.

“The oil and gas sector has made notable strides in driving down emissions – including a 25 per cent reduction in oil sands emissions intensity since 2005 – one of the most significant reductions across all sectors. Critically, industry is committed to continuing to reduce emissions, over and above government mandates. Companies representing 95 per cent of the oil sands are collaborating to reduce their environmental footprint through the Pathways to Net Zero initiative, and there have been significant investments in hydrogen, renewable natural gas, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

“By creating a stable regulatory environment, consulting with industry at each step, and making significant investments in emissions reductions technology in Budget 2022, a collaborative approach will yield the progress needed and provide needed certainty and stability to the industries bringing action to shared climate goals.”

For media inquiries, please contact Arianne Brady, Manager, Communications at media@calgarychamber.com.

About the Calgary Chamber

The Calgary Chamber is an independent non-profit, non-partisan business organization. For 131 years the Chamber has worked to be the convenor and catalyst for a vibrant, inclusive, and prosperous business community, for the benefit of all Calgarians.