According to Reuters article published on April 20, 2023, Canada's main oil-producing province Alberta on Wednesday released a climate plan aiming for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but did not announce any interim targets in a move that puts it at odds with the federal government's strategy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has targeted a 40-45% cut in emissions by 2030 and will need to see major reductions from Alberta, the country's highest-polluting province and the centre of the fossil fuel industry.
Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage said the province is working on sector-specific emissions reduction targets but would not impose unrealistic interim goals, and singled out Ottawa's 2030 goal of a 42% cut in oil and gas emissions.
"That's a random target attached to a random date," Savage told a news conference in Calgary. "Before we regulate or impose limits on specific industries and interim targets there's more work to be done. We have to see what's achievable."
The federal Environment Ministry declined to comment.
The release of the climate plan comes ahead of a provincial election on May 29.
Conservative Alberta's populist premier Danielle Smith is a long-standing critic of Trudeau and has made pushing back against perceived federal over-reach, particularly in the energy sector, a mark of her premiership.
A provincial government statement on the climate plan called on Ottawa policymakers to "stay in their lane" and avoid interfering in provincial jurisdiction.
The plan is focused on areas including carbon capture and storage, clean electricity, tougher methane regulations and strengthening the province's industrial carbon pricing system.
Alberta is also exploring lowering its 100 megatonne cap on oil sands emissions, Savage said. The federal government plans to introduce a cap on oil and gas emissions, which Alberta has opposed on the grounds it would amount to a cap on production.
Climate policy think-tank Clean Prosperity welcomed the climate plan but said clear milestones are needed to show how Alberta will reach net-zero by 2050.
"Otherwise this plan risks being an aspirational document rather than a roadmap to a low-carbon future," said Adam Sweet, Clean Prosperity's Western Director.
