The federal government has reached agreements with British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan on reducing methane emissions in oil and gas production. The agreements are to allow strengthened provincial methane regulations to replace the federal regulations for up to five years. The idea is to enable provinces to design regulations that best suit their jurisdictions while meeting equivalent emissions-reduction outcomes to the federal regulations. In addition, they have to meet a number of other conditions such as having adequate legal structures for public investigations on alleged offences.
In terms of methane emissions, while the other two provinces mostly meet the federal regulations, the Saskatchewan targets are lower in three out of the five years.
Methane emissions from oil and gas sector (millions of tonnes)
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
||
|
British Columbia |
Federal regulations |
1.8 |
1.7 |
1.8 |
1.3 |
1.3 |
1.3 |
|
Provincial regulations |
1.8 |
1.8 |
1.4 |
1.4 |
1.3 |
1.2 |
|
|
Alberta |
Federal regulations |
29.6 |
28.7 |
27.7 |
23.1 |
23.3 |
23.5 |
|
Provincial regulations |
29.6 |
29.3 |
28.4 |
23.6 |
23.6 |
23.6 |
|
|
Saskatchewan |
Federal regulations |
11.1 |
11.1 |
11.1 |
6.9 |
6.9 |
n/a |
|
Provincial regulations |
9.9 |
9.5 |
9.5 |
9.1 |
9.0 |
n/a |