If You Can't Tax it, Catch it: Canada's Carbon Problem

As Canada’s political climate continues to change post pandemic we’re seeing faltering in the support for a carbon tax. Increasingly, Canadians are struggling to make ends meet and the carbon tax appears to be no help. Even the federal government seems to believe this and has cut the pricing from home heating oil, stating that it acts as a hindrance rather than an incentive to shift to more renewable home energy sources. As pressures rise, conservative premiers are also pushing for natural gas, in addition to home heating oil, to be excluded from the carbon levy. But is this the right path forward? 

Although many believe the carbon tax is increasing costs it has been shown that the average Canadian actually turns a profit from the new pricing, in the form of four climate action incentive payments per year. This important fact may help in the fight to keep the carbon tax but it still might not be enough in the public eye. Despite public opinion carbon pricing still appears to be one of our most promising schemes for reducing net carbon output. With Canada’s environment commissioner, Jerry DeMarco, stating that it is still one of the “potentially strong measures” for reducing carbon emissions. Even if the carbon tax is currently a promising method of reducing Canada’s net emissions it stands to be seen if its effectiveness will be dragged down by the ever increasing list of exemptions. 

While many politicians debate over the carbon tax, the private sector has begun to move towards methods of net carbon reduction that better suit their needs. One such method being carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), a process where fossil fuel manufacturers filter out the carbon from their emissions. Although at face value this may seem like a positive thing, most of the time these captured emissions are simply used to extract even more fossil fuels from the ground in a process known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This ultimately means more emissions and more extracting, resulting in a repeating cycle of fossil fuel exploitation. Ironically, carbon capture was initially invented for the express purpose of making it easier to extract fossil fuels. Only more recently has the technology gained prominence in helping to combat climate change and emissions output.

Is carbon sequestration a viable solution? Well like all things carbon related it remains to be seen, so far though it isn’t looking very promising. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada’s carbon capture facilities only trap around 0.5% of the country's total emissions. This lies in stark contrast to the nations oil and gas extraction industries total output, which in 2020 accounted for 22.4% of Canada's total emissions. Despite what appears to be a near total lack in viability to be a real solution to the problem, Alberta is pushing forward with support for carbon capture. On Tuesday, November 26th, Alberta premier Danielle Smith pledged just over 5 billion dollars of provincial funding for carbon capture projects in the oil and gas sector. While Smith and her government are optimistic about the possibilities of carbon capture some experts do not seem to share the same enthusiasm. Many outside of the industry see carbon capture as an exceedingly expensive way to accomplish what other projects or effective legislation could instead accomplish. 

Let us not forget that the 5 billion dollars that Danielle Smith has pledged to carbon capture projects is in fact taxpayer funded. This leads to an important intersection, should taxpayers pay upfront to help reduce carbon emissions? Or should they support a government that spends their funds on projects like carbon sequestration? On one hand, the first option appears to be a meaningful solution, while also financially benefiting the average Canadian. On the other, the second option seems to be a costly waste of funds to help prop up a dying industry. I think the answer is clear but only time will tell us what helps the most in our end goal of net zero.

SOURCES:

The Narwhal. https://thenarwhal.ca/manitoba-carbon-pricing-debate/

CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/carbon-capture-canada-iea-1.7041175

CTV News. https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-introduces-carbon-capture-program-offering-industries-12-in-project-grants-1.6665107

Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230216/dq230216f-eng.htm