Statement by Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Today’s announcement of Alberta’s Carbon Capture Incentive Program puts billions of taxpayer dollars on the line for a risky, speculative and unnecessary technology with a track record of expensive failure after expensive failure. Carbon capture has never worked as promised, the carbon is dangerous to transport, and the technology is extremely expensive, especially compared to the plummeting costs of renewable energy.

Last week, the International Energy Agency warned governments against relying on the carbon capture plans of oil and gas companies, calling these a fantasy. Yet governments in Canada, now including Alberta, are ignoring the world’s foremost energy experts, to instead lavish enormous subsidies on the fossil fuel industry’s latest greenwashing scheme.

This isn’t just a bad bet for the climate, it’s bad for Albertans. Albertans should ask whether they want their tax dollars to go toward supporting unproven technology for oil and gas companies, when these companies continue to rake in excessive profits. Further, demand for Canada’s oil will fall this decade, meaning that these billions of taxpayer money will translate into enormous stranded assets.

In making this announcement just days before the start of COP28, Premier Smith is sending a clear message that her upcoming presence at the climate negotiations is not to further climate action. It’s to promote the interests of oil and gas companies and further attack the federal government for the action it is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil fuel industry, which produces the largest chunk of Canada’s emissions. Of course, this should come as no surprise from a province that put a moratorium on renewable energy development. Despite accounting for nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s climate pollution – far more than any other province – it is one of the only provinces that does not have a 2030 emissions reduction target.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca