50% Global Emissions Cut Would Avoid Severe Climate Impacts to Tropics – The Energy Mix
But if countries carry on with their inadequate response to the
climate crisis, extreme sea level rise and major GDP losses in those
regions will continue for decades and centuries to come, the think tank says.
Signed July 7 by top bureaucrats in Ottawa and Edmonton, it cuts funding by at least 25 per cent. The budget has been cut to no more than $44 million this year. It was $58 million last year and $60 million in 2018.
The deal says no fieldwork is to be done on the main branch of the Athabasca River. That means the program won’t fund monitoring downstream of the oilsands even as the province considers proposals to allow the water from oilsands tailings ponds to be released into the river.
The deal also says there’ll be no field studies on wetlands, fish or insects.
A pilot project gauging the risks posed by tailings ponds has been dropped. Water quality assessment in Wood Buffalo National Park — part of a response to international concerns about environmental degradation at the UNESCO World Heritage Site — is gone.
Source: Alberta, Ottawa sign deal that reduces oilsands environmental monitoring | CBC News
You’d be forgiven if you thought this title was plucked from the news a decade ago. The sadder reality is that it’s the recent response of 47 legal, environmental, health, Indigenous and faith groups who said as much in an open letter to Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson (https://bit.ly/2ZOERPD). The letter addresses the prospect of a major expansion by an Alberta-based thermal coal mine that wants to sell even more of its climate-compromising product into Asian markets… during a climate emergency.
I know… Coal? Are you serious?
But here’s the deal: Coalspur’s Vista Mine near Hinton, Alta. (outside Jasper National Park), already the country’s largest such operation, is trying to finagle an even larger expansion than the one it originally proposed to federal authorities—including a previously undisclosed underground mine. Through technical and legal manoeuvring, the project has so far managed to evade environmental assessment despite the fact, according to EcoJustice, that “Canada’s current environmental laws would require an assessment for a new mine even one eighth Vista’s proposed expansion size.”
Source: ECOLOGIC: Coal? Are you serious? – Pique Newsmagazine
Fossil fuel proponents are becoming more concerned about the path forward for the industry. This year we have seen a barrage of insurance companies and international investors pulling their support out of Alberta fossil fuel projects. Although the federal and some provincial provinces claim they want to reduce emissions, only a small fraction of the amount that gets allotted to fossil fuels gets spent on renewable energies. Canada subsidized the fossil fuel industry to the tune of almost $60 billion in 2015.
The federal government is also offering support to the renewable industry as well.
Since Covid19 the government was warned that the clean-tech industry was in trouble. They received little help, but G20 countries poured 16 billion into helping fossil fuel producers.
In a report Paul Morris , director for In Situ Strategic Technology at Suncor Energy, said global sentiment about the hydrocarbon industry is negative and this issue needs to be addressed. Canadian sentiment is the same, he added. It seems companies are realizing time is running out if they ever hope to be at net-zero carbon emissions and they fear the technology to produce this doesn’t even exist yet. With added pressure, social license for fossil fuel development is disappearing, as increasingly more people are demanding an end to the pollution.
Natural Resources published an infographic showing the health care costs in Canada resulting from exposure to air pollution. It claims the cost could reach 250 billion by 2031.
There’s need for increased investment in technology development in Alberta and the government needs to be prepared to take the risk, funding these developments. From all the bluff and blunder from Alberta premier Jason Kenney, one would think it isn’t likely to happen but sometime during the week of July 22, his government is providing $58 million through ERA to support this as an opportunity to create jobs in the natural gas sector. Here is an example of projects this money will fund.
MultiSensor Canada Inc.
Methane Imaging Solution for Continuous Leak Detection and Quantification for Tank Emissions and Facility Monitoring
Total project value: 3,200,000 | ERA commitment: 1,600,000
Permanent installation and demonstration of an infrared cameras at 100 well sites to provide continuous leak detection and quantification for tank emissions and facility monitoring.
Qube Technologies
Emissions Reductions Through Artificial Intelligence
Total project value: 16,200,000 | ERA commitment: 4,000,000
Deployment of an industrial device designed to collect large quantities of data to use artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to better quantify, locate, and classify emissions.
University of Calgary:
Field-Scale Deployment and Acceleration of Made-In-Alberta Technology for Fugitive Emissions Detection and Reduction
Total project value: 3,200,000 | ERA commitment: 1,600,000
Full-scale, field pilot of a new vehicle-based technology designed for equipment-level emissions screening to support effective regulatory leak detection and repair.
A full list of the projects can be found here.
The demand for oil & gas has really taken a beating since around the time Coviod19 started. It can’t all be blamed on the pandemic though. The Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war started just before we were partially immobilized, and it had already started dragging the prices lower.
Although what could be considered being true to character, Mr. Kenney is still propping up a dying industry with the promise of jobs. It almost seems like he might have turned over a green new leaf.
Businesses and governments are realizing a change is coming. They’ll have to change or risk being put out of business. Governments too. Lip service only goes so far.
Hopefully the federal government will be footing the bill. The UCP shut down most, if not all, energy efficiency projects last year. The only thing being funded in Alberta is coal and pipelines. Alberta is ramping up production in 2-3 coal mines to start. Tech Resources over in BC has six they’re mining. Going to have to change a lot of light bulbs to make up for increased toxic emissions.
The organization is calling for three immediate steps toward the 3% goals: training to help unemployed people enter the energy efficiency work force, provincial and municipal energy efficiency programs, and “strategic public investments to build a market for energy efficiency retrofit investments” through the Canada Infrastructure Bank and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. In a sustainable recovery plan developed along with the International Monetary Fund, the IEA estimated that a $1-million investment in home energy retrofits creates nine to 30 jobs, Business in Vancouver says.
“A national retrofit program would also spread the spending across Canada, whereas many other greenhouse gas mitigation projects may only benefit a specific region,” the paper adds. And “once energy efficiency investments are made, they may result in lower utility costs to homeowners.”
Source: Details Scarce as Canada Pledges to Triple Annual Energy Efficiency Improvements – The Energy Mix