In this provocative new report from Clean Energy Canada, the authors  argue that the federal government should marry the $180 billion commitment to invest in infrastructure over the next 12 years with strategies to reduce our emissions. To develop and apply the technical tools needed to address these gaps and challenges, Clean Energy Canada staff engaged with The Treasury Board of Canada through its Greening Government Secretariat and the National Research Council over a six-month period. The policy recommendations found at the end of  the report are largely based on research collected during these multi-stakeholder interviews.

This report focuses on  how to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, which has become an increasingly popular way to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Methane is almost 100 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. The good news, however, is that methane stays in the atmosphere for less than a decade and can be managed both effectively and inexpensively, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change. Moreover, reducing methane emissions will have an immediate positive impact.

This report evaluates how British Columbia’s carbon tax might be applied to methane emissions from oil and gas to drive emissions reductions. It models two approaches to applying B.C.’s carbon tax to methane emissions and the authors show that these emissions reductions can be achieved more cost-effectively than in other sectors of the economy and without imposing a substantial competitive disadvantage on the province’s oil and gas industry.

The third in a part of a series, this report focuses on the progress on the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF) commitments in heavy-duty trucking and present a blueprint for the federal government to accelerate its progress. The authors’ make 11 recommendations to advance the PCF with respect to heavy-duty trucking, they highlight immediate actions that could be taken including identifying major corridors along which to invest in publicly-funded zero-emissions heavy-duty refuelling/recharging stations targeted at long haul operations.