“The problem with net-zero in Canada is that it’s a really undefined term that gets thrown around a lot.
Reducing emissions to zero is a clear objective, Lee says, but net zero is less clear.
“On top of these efforts, B.C.
Canada isn’t alone in pledging to hit net-zero emissions by 2050 — 120 countries, including all in the G7, have pledged the same goal.
Accounting for the entire lifecycle of a CCS project also puts them as net emitters, because they require so much energy to build and operate.
Alberta is asking the federal government to invest $30 billion in CCS over the next decade, and Saskatchewan has already received $1.5 billion in CCS funding.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said CCS technologies hold “significant potential” to offset emissions from industry that is inherently difficult to decarbonize, like aviation fuel or livestock.
The province is considering a wide range of policy options and technologies to hit its 2030 emissions targets, including a regulatory framework for “safe and effective underground carbon storage,” the ministry said.
But the technology for this system isn’t scalable to combat Canada’s emissions, let alone the world’s, the report says.
For starters, it doesn’t count areas impacted by pests or wildfires when calculating emissions.
But forests can emit around 275 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in a single year, the report notes.
The emissions are “currently excluded from emissions totals because many of these sources are largely outside of human control and there remain challenges in accurately quantifying the impact of provincial policy on them,” the Ministry of Environment said in an emailed statement.
True offsets will need to pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it back underground, the report says.
Canada should reduce its fossil fuel use and protect its forests, in addition to using better forest management practices to increase how much carbon forests can suck up, the report says.
B.C.’s forest-based carbon offsets are strictly regulated using “some of the highest standards in the world,” the Ministry of Environment said in an emailed statement.
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