Canada to Cut 30 Percent of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030, Including Oil Sands

Mining.com reported that Canada’s federal government has made a promise to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emission by 30 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030, a target that Environment Canada said includes plans for the oil sands sector.

As quoted in the market news:

The new emissions target, announced by Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq in Winnipeg, aims to control emissions in three separate areas: methane releases from oil and gas extraction; natural-gas fired power plants, and the manufacture of chemicals and nitrogen fertilizers.

A spokesman for the ministry told MINING.com that despite rumours of the plan not setting specific rules to cut emissions in the oil sands, they are indeed considered as they are part of the oil and gas sector.

The announcement comes more than three years after Canada abandoned its original emission reductions targets under the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement Canada signed on to almost two decades ago.

The leader of the country, which has historically matched its targets with those set south of the border, said last month it was unlikely that Canada’s targets were to match the U.S. this time.

Environment Canada’s most recent emissions inventory shows 726 megatonnes of emissions in the country in 2013 — up 1.5% from a year earlier — with Alberta responsible for 267 megatonnes.

The federal agency has said the growth of emissions from the oil sands will likely mean Canada will miss its 2020 climate change commitments under the Copenhagen accord.

Click here to read the full Mining.com report.