Squandering the C$15-billion Canada Growth Fund on carbon capture and storage (CCS) for the oil and gas sector would be a huge mistake, warn experts from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), arguing that the cash-trapping technology has proved ineffective over decades while better investment options have emerged.
“For too long, Canada has entertained the myth that CCS for oil and gas is a silver-bullet solution in creating a globally competitive, low-carbon oil and gas sector,” write Laura Cameron, senior policy advisor at IISD, and Angela Carter, a professor at the University of Waterloo and IISD energy transition specialist, in a Globe and Mail op-ed.
“CCS for oil and gas has been promoted by industry as key to Canada’s competitive advantage in a decarbonizing world,” they add, and “despite all the evidence to the contrary, this beguiling myth is perpetuated within industry and has pervaded the conversation around Canada’s energy transition.”
This is why the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP)—as it seeks to earmark money from the $15-billion Canada Growth Fund to attract global investment in Canada’s clean economy—“should not succumb to endorsing CCS for oil and gas.”
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