Quebec joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance this week — becoming the first North American member of a new group being launched at the United Nations climate conference that wants to phase out the production of oil and gas.
The movement to keep oil and gas in the ground has reached Canada, as Quebec joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance this week — becoming the first North American member of a new group being launched at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow that wants to phase out the production of oil and gas.
Cutting fossil fuel production also means targeting the emissions when oil and gas are burned. Canada, like other countries in the Paris Agreement, is only required to report emissions that come from its territory.
The emissions numbers for the oil and gas sector only account for emissions from producing, transporting and processing those fuels in Canada. The emissions from those fuels when they are actually burned in cars or power plants abroad don't count toward Canada's totals.
"So most of the fossil fuels that Canada produces, we export and go somewhere else, and then they're consumed and they're burned. And the emissions associated with that shows up on another country's tab," said Angela Carter, an associate political science professor at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., who researches the fossil fuel industry.
This has led to a growing call to target the production and supply of oil and gas, rather than just the emissions. Canada's current plan to cut emissions from the oil and gas industry relies on making companies extract the oil more efficiently.
