Environmental issues in Alberta

The Canadian province of Alberta faces a number of environmental issues related to natural resource extraction—including oil and gas industry with its oil sands—endangered species, melting glaciers in banff, floods and droughts, wildfires, and global climate change. While the oil and gas industries generates substantial economic wealth, the Athabasca oil sands, which are situated almost entirely in Alberta, are the "fourth most carbon intensive on the planet behind Algeria, Venezuela and Cameroon" according to an August 8, 2018 article in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's journal Science. This article details some of the environmental issues including past ecological disasters in Alberta and describes some of the efforts at the municipal, provincial and federal level to mitigate the risks and impacts.

According to the 2019 report Canada's Changing Climate Report,[1] which was commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed by 1.7 C since 1948. The rate of warming is even higher in Canada's North, in the Prairies and northern British Columbia.[2] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C set a target of 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) that would require "deep emissions reductions"[3][4] and that "[g]lobal net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050" for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C.[4]

The Canadian oil and gas industry produces "60 per cent of all industrial emissions in Canada"[5] and Alberta has the largest oil and gas industry in the country.[5] By September 2017, Alberta had already begun "implementing broad climate change policies" including a "sophisticated two-tier carbon pricing system" for consumers and major emitters. This represented a "first step in broadening the tax base". The province set a "target cap for greenhouse gas emissions" and began the transformation to lower-carbon with coal being phased out for electricity production. Some involved in the energy industry were "voluntarily expanding into renewables and lower-carbon energy sources."[6] The first act introduced by Premier Jason Kenney as promised in his United Conservative Party (UCP) election platform was An Act to Repeal the Carbon Tax, which received Royal Assent on June 4, 2019.[7]

Raw bitumen extracted from the oil sands in northern Alberta is shipped in Canada and to the United States through pipelines, railway, and trucks. Environmental concerns about the unintended consequences of the oil sands industry are linked to environmental issues in the rest of Canada. While pipelines are considered to be the most efficient and safest of the three methods, concerns have been raised about pipeline expansion because of climate change, the risk of pipeline leaks, increased oil tanker traffic and higher risk of oil tanker spills, and violations of First Nations' rights.

  1. ^ Bush, E.; Lemmen, D.S., eds. (2019). Canada's Changing Climate Report (PDF). Government of Canada (Report). Ottawa, Ontario. p. 444. ISBN 978-0-660-30222-5. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  2. ^ "Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds". CBC News. 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  3. ^ V. Masson-Delmotte; P. Zhai; H. O. Pörtner; et al., eds. (2018). Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (PDF) (Report). Headline statements.
  4. ^ a b Press release: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (PDF) (Report). Incheon, Republic of Korea: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 8 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference financialpost_20190515 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Hodgson, Glen (September 26, 2017). "Three challenges facing Alberta amid the province's new economic reality". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 23, 2019. Reposted by the Conference Board of Canada.
  7. ^ "Bill Status Report for the 30th Legislature - 1st Session (2019)" (PDF), Legislative Assembly of Alberta, p. 2, June 20, 2019, retrieved June 20, 2019