THE FUTURE OF ENERGY

In just more than half a decade, Canada’s energy sector has been decimated by existential forces, including a price slump, a pandemic and environmental pressures that combined to sap its finances and force thousands of people out of their jobs.

Now, after a summer of heat waves, wildfires and destructive storms, oil and gas companies find themselves in a tougher struggle to convince investors and the general public that they are serious about reducing their emissions in the transition to a low-carbon economy – and that they can do it while supplying new markets.

The International Energy Agency and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued reports this year detailing the extent of the crisis and the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. The IEA laid out a road map to netzero emissions that prescribes no spending on new oil and gas fields.

Canada’s biggest energy challenge remains Alberta’s oil sands, which generate almost 12 per cent of the country’s CO2 emissions. To survive, the industry must somehow show it is reducing its impact while making a case for more pipeline capacity to a carbon-constrained world.

The oil sands’ biggest players have pledged to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, and that will mean massive investments in new technology and offsets in the form of carbon capture and renewables. A big question for Canadians is how much taxpayer money should go into the effort as the world shifts to greener energy sources.