Western Standard - December 04, 2023


Minister Steven Guilbeault on reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector

Topics
methane regulations & reductions
Mentioned
J.H.G.Sat
Increasing capacity for veterinary medicine We lead the world on reducing methane emissions

Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

150.36

Word count

937

Sentence count

51


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers an important announcement on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in Canada and the United States, which could have a major impact on our efforts to fight climate change.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm honoured to be here to share with you a very promising announcement from the Government of Canada.
00:00:05.180 But first, let me tell you about a company from my hometown, Montreal, called J.H.G.Sat.
00:00:10.720 Founded in 2011 by Stéphane Germain, the company was recently featured on the cover of Time magazine
00:00:15.920 for its groundbreaking work in monitoring methane emissions from space.
00:00:20.580 Like me, Stéphane began his career as a passionate environmentalist.
00:00:24.140 While I focus on environmental activist and now politics, Stéphane dreamed of innovation.
00:00:30.620 J.H.G.Sat is the only private company or space agency capable of attributing methane emissions to individual installations.
00:00:39.140 This is a real source of national pride, but also it shows that innovation is essential.
00:00:45.200 Today's announcement is the result of strong collaboration between the federal government,
00:00:49.460 provincial and territorial government, as well as indigenous communities and Canadian industries.
00:00:54.140 It's also the fruit of ongoing cooperation with partners like the United States
00:00:58.340 who understand that by tackling methane emissions, we're activating one of the most powerful levers we have against climate change.
00:01:06.260 Canada and the U.S. were the first countries to establish national regulations on methane in the oil and gas sector.
00:01:12.700 And here at COP28, just two days ago, the U.S. EPA announced changes to methane regulations.
00:01:18.860 It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of proposed amendments to our national regulations,
00:01:25.280 which further enhance our rigor and ambition.
00:01:29.180 These amendments will enable us to meet our targets for the Global Methane Pledge.
00:01:34.620 Before I begin, I just want to offer a bit of history.
00:01:37.480 In 2018, the Government of Canada published our first methane regulations for the oil and gas sector,
00:01:42.440 which aim to reduce these emissions by 40% to 45% by 2025 from 2012 levels.
00:01:49.300 To achieve that goal, we work with three of our most implicated provinces to develop agreements
00:01:53.940 where the federal regulations could stand down in favour of provincial rules that align with those federal goals.
00:02:01.040 And this has been a success story.
00:02:03.080 It gives me great pleasure to say that we're on track to surpass our goal ahead of schedule.
00:02:08.180 So today's announcement builds on past success.
00:02:12.780 I'm very happy to announce the release of even more ambitious draft methane regulations
00:02:17.120 for Canada's oil and gas sector, consistent with the International Energy Agency's recommendation.
00:02:22.960 We're now aiming for at least 75% reduction for the oil and gas sector by 2030 in Canada.
00:02:29.080 The accuracy and understanding of how much and where methane is emitted and that is reported properly
00:02:36.240 is critical to achieving methane targets.
00:02:39.680 To address this, the Government of Canada will also be announcing $30 million to establish a methane centre of excellency
00:02:46.080 to improve our understanding and reporting of methane emissions
00:02:50.060 with a focus on collaborative initiatives to support data and measurement.
00:02:54.680 We know we can do this.
00:02:55.740 Our approach is in step with what our neighbours in the South are doing.
00:03:00.140 We're broadening the scope to include a wider set of sources,
00:03:04.080 from the point of natural gas out of the ground to where it enters the pipeline that brings it to the market.
00:03:10.060 We're eliminating most exclusions from the existing regulations.
00:03:14.440 This means that virtually all of Canadian facilities handling natural gas will be covered.
00:03:19.960 The goal is to eliminate the escape of methane during production, from venting or routine flaring.
00:03:26.840 We're also establishing new performance standards for leak detection and repair,
00:03:31.440 focusing on sites with the highest risk.
00:03:34.180 And we're addressing problems such as blowdowns and other potential large methane releases.
00:03:39.740 All this while ensuring the energy industry, both in Canada and the U.S., remains competitive on the world markets.
00:03:46.240 That is the key.
00:03:48.000 Not only can methane emissions be captured and achieved at a low cost for the oil and gas companies,
00:03:53.520 but that captured methane can then be sold or used as a source of energy.
00:03:58.280 We're all in this together, and I want to highlight the collaboration and ambition we're seeing from Canadian provinces and territories,
00:04:03.900 as well as from Canadian oil and gas companies, to tackle the methane emissions.
00:04:09.420 Twelve major Canadian firms have already committed to lowering their methane emissions to near zero by 2030.
00:04:16.060 And as of Saturday, they've been joined by 50 oil companies, representing nearly half of global production,
00:04:21.440 that have pledged to reach near zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030.
00:04:27.680 They understand the need to become among the cleanest producers in the world to compete in a decarbonizing global economy.
00:04:35.320 They see the new business opportunities arising from Canada's cleantech sector,
00:04:38.820 which offers affordable solutions to the globe's oil and gas producers for methane abatement.
00:04:45.540 They also know that reducing methane emissions is the right thing to do,
00:04:48.980 because it's critically important in our efforts to fight climate change.
00:04:52.200 Over the next few years, our methane regulations should result in an estimated $12 billion in avoided damages globally,
00:05:01.440 not to mention the huge benefits on air quality and population health.
00:05:06.140 Canada is also working to advance methane reduction and carbon capture in the agricultural sector,
00:05:11.100 and we're developing regulations aimed at reducing landfill methane emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2019 levels.
00:05:18.720 So I'm encouraged by the global collective progress towards achieving the Global Methane Pledge.
00:05:24.800 2023 has been a big year for action in methane in Canada and around the world,
00:05:30.000 and we will continue working with all countries to reach and even exceed our shared goals.
00:05:36.140 Colleagues, this is one of the biggest opportunities that we have to act quickly on climate.
00:05:40.740 Thank you for all your help.
00:05:42.240 Thank you.
00:05:48.720 Thank you.
00:05:59.960 Thank you.