Canadian Natural Resources has a lot at stake. “I encourage Premier Notley, and all of Alberta, to follow this first step with continued bold action to transition away from fossil fuels”. Andrew Leach, a University of Alberta energy economist, led the panel, which received thousands of pages of submissions from citizens, industry and environmental groups.
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“This is the right plan for our province, and now is the right time to implement it”, Phillips said. “The cap on tar sands emissions is a game changer”. “That’s strong leadership and a very good thing for the climate”.
In the meantime, Alberta’s new plan gives the Canadian delegation something concrete to trumpet at the Paris summit.
Notley said the plan will “flatten” the growth in emissions from Alberta and eventually start to reduce them, and she hopes the world takes notice.
She said 3 million barrels of crude oil per day, or half the amount that is now extracted in Alberta, will stay in the ground as a result of the plan.
“Canada is charting a new direction. There is now nothing standing in the way of Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau legislating an ambitious national climate leadership plan”, Mahon said hopefully. Newly minted prime minister Justin Trudeau has invited the premiers to accompany him as part of the Canadian delegation to the conference.
Two-thirds of coal generation will be replaced with renewable energy, she said. That’s where society is ultimately headed.
The government has been tight-lipped over whether its carbon levy will apply only to large industry, as is now the case, or whether it will be widely applied as in British Columbia.
But other environmentalists say Notley’s plan is too little too late.
Greenpeace Canada agreed with the former sentiment. “So the cap must be viewed as a ceiling, not a floor”.
“The sun is setting on the tar sands industry”, Kretzmann said in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress.
“I really have to say that the questions brought up by my fellow first ministers were responsible and precise around the details, around security, around funding, around integration support, but there was never a question of whether or not Canada should be doing more, whether or not Canada should be continuing in the long tradition Canada has always had of welcoming people from disaster zones or conflict areas”, Trudeau said.
The Alberta tar sands industry, for years the source of extreme environmental damage and fierce critical outrage for its contribution to global warming, on Sunday was served an enormous blow when Premier Rachel Notley announced a historic new climate change strategy.
The government is moving to phase out the province’s coal-fired power generation by 2030. Money collected through the carbon price will be invested into measures to reduce pollution, and to help families, small businesses and First Nations working in the coal industry. “We considered the possibility of having a piece of it go against the fiscal challenges we face in Alberta … and we decided that no, while the economy is in the situation it is now, every cent goes back in”.
Earlier this year, the Pembina Institute, which is a Canadian clean energy think tank, and the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund released a study showing how Canada’s oil and gas emissions could be reduced 45 per cent below projected 2020 levels cost effectively, using already-available technologies.
Coal plants provide nearly 40% of the province’s installed power capacity, according to Alberta Energy.
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“We’ve got what the World Bank says is the most effective carbon pricing anywhere in the world, so we’re going to talk together and to the prime minister about our strategy”.
