After the United States Election An Emissions Cap Has Become More Important Than Ever

Your advocacy for an emissions cap, and other climate measures, matters more than ever. We need to protect what we love now.

By Conor Curtis, Head of Communications at Sierra Club Canada

After the election of the President of the United States who has promised to do the will of oil and gas companies in return for their financial support, you, like me, are probably waking up to feelings of fear for our climate future. But this morning I am driven forward by a recent statement from the UN Environment Programme:

“Every fraction of a degree avoided counts in terms of lives saved, economies protected, damages avoided, biodiversity conserved, and the ability to rapidly bring down any temperature overshoot.”

Every single thing we can do counts in lives saved, not just for the climate but to restore nature and build movements for justice. And history will remember what we do now. If we can save even a few lives that’s worth it.

If we can save thousands in Canada by reducing air pollution then that’s worth it. 

In the days and weeks ahead I am resolved that what we do now matters most.

Climate change is going to get worse, a lot worse. For too many it has already had devastating consequences as we talked about in our podcast yesterday with climate survivors who are calling for an emissions cap on wealthy oil and gas corporations. Those on the front lines of the climate crises can not afford inaction on our part – the emissions cap is just one way we can help hold powerful interests accountable to reducing pollution.

These are the very same oil and gas corporations that have spent their time trying to destroy any policy intended to hold them even slightly accountable. They have interfered with the safety of our future, interfered with the future of generations to come, countless times. If we do not stand up to them they will not stop.

If we are to have any hope of combatting climate change, this country is now one of the most important places where we must fight to Protect What We Love. Not just because of our own emissions, but as an example to the world – for all those out there who want a better future – that they are not alone. 

Let’s get a few things straight here for the record:

• This is an emissions cap on wealthy corporations, it is NOT a cap on individual people. The cap is more than fair: Oil and gas corporations, while only 5% of Canada’s economy, are Canada’s most polluting sector causing around 30% of national emissions. Between 1990 and 2022, emissions from oil sands production grew by 467% and conventional oil production by 24% – since 2005 emissions overall increased 11%. Per-barrel emissions from oil sands also increased since 2018. Meanwhile, other sectors, and individual Canadians, cut their emissions.
• The emissions cap is easy for oil and gas corporations to implement and will NOT hurt Canada’s competitiveness: The heavy lifting is done by methane reductions and “the IEA has shown that nearly half of the global oil and gas industry’s methane emissions can be reduced at no net cost…. Oil and gas companies in Canada can eliminate 75 per cent of their methane emissions at an average cost of only $11 per tonne.” For many oil and gas companies the emissions cap can be met through further methane efforts. Extremely cheap given their corporate profits, and there are other easy steps they can take like electrifying operations.
• Furthermore, as to the potential impact of U.S. tariffs on Canada, which we can thank the oil and gas CEOs behind the new U.S. Administration for causing, it looks like they likely won’t apply to Canadian oil and gas, who actually plan to expand their infrastructure in Canada now. It’s just the other sectors of Canada’s economy that will suffer because of tariffs (i.e. the other sectors that cut their emissions already – unlike oil and gas corporations).

I encourage you to share this message with others and to send in a message to our leaders to show your support for climate action. Stay tuned, there will be more to come in the coming days. And if you have questions please write to us at communications@sierraclub.ca

We also have a podcast club that is ongoing and a chance to connect with like-minded activists in an area of mutual support. You can join that mutual support club by emailing ontario@sierraclub.ca

There will be those south of the border who will be looking to us for aid, for solidarity, and for safety – it’s important we are there for them.

What we do now, how we set an example in a time of crisis, matters more than ever.