Canada to Stop Supporting Foreign Oil & Gas Projects

Ottawa announced in a statement that Canada had officially stopped its government support for international oil and gas projects.

“The Government of Canada is taking a suite of actions to achieve Canada’s climate goals,” according to the statement. “These include accelerating our G20 commitment “to phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” from 2025 to 2023, and to develop a plan to phase out public financing of the fossil fuel sector, including by federal Crown corporations, in accordance with the December 2021 Ministerial mandate letter commitments.”

According to the new changes, Canada will no longer fund international oil and gas projects or development but will keep funding current operations that are beyond the scope of its COP26 promise.

Ottawa will continue to promote oil and gas developments in Canada, but not abroad. The guidelines cover “financial (including commercial or concessional), advocacy, export finance, and any other direct financial or promotional support provided by Government of Canada and Crown entities.”

Another stipulation restricting the scope of the new regulations is the word “unabated,” which indicates “the absence of effective (leading to significant emissions reductions), operational carbon capture and storage (CCS)/carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) or equivalent technologies in the power generation sector.”

This means that If a new oil and gas project contains carbon capture or similar mitigating techniques, the Canadian government may support it with a clear conscience even after 2023.

Canada promised to stop supporting new oil and gas projects at the COP26 summit in Scotland last year.

Original source material for this article taken from here