Cenovus chief urges Trudeau to pay for greening of Canada’s oil sands

Cenovus chief urges Trudeau to pay for greening of Canada’s oil sands

Canada’s government should pay for up to 70 per cent of a proposed C$75bn ($60bn) project to decarbonise the country’s controversial oil sands and protect a critical engine of the country’s economy, one of the proposal’s backers said.

“If we’re able to solve the puzzle of making Canadian oil significantly lower carbon intensive”, the oil would be the “cleanest in the world”, Alex Pourbaix, chief executive of Cenovus Energy, the country’s second-largest oil producer, told the Financial Times.

But Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which last year committed Canada to slashing emissions by 40-45 per cent below its 2005 levels by 2030, must pay up to make it happen, he argued.

“It’s going to take tens of billions of dollars over 30 years to decarbonise [our oil] industry,” said Pourbaix. “But at the same time that will protect something in the range of C$3tn of GDP.”

Pourbaix and industry group the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (Capp) also urged the federal government to extend tax credits to oil companies that would use captured carbon to produce more oil.

The calls for federal funding will complicate matters for Trudeau amid criticism that Canada is not moving quickly enough to meet its climate targets while his government defends