EDMONTON – If you still believe Alberta’s oilsands are a major contributor to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, you’d better check your math.
The oilsands, which produce about two per cent of the world’s daily crude supplies, account for just seven per cent of Canada’s carbon emissions, or less than 0.2 per cent of the global total.
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Anyone who tells you that energy independence can be achieved based on globally traded commodities such as oil, coal and natural gas is either trying to mislead you or doesn’t understand the structure of energy markets. As of 2011 fossil fuels produced 83 percent of the world’s energy according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Because fossil fuels can be transported anywhere in the world, producers seek out the highest price unless they are constrained by law or infrastructure from doing so.
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Coal will nearly overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and only a drop in world gas prices could curb the use of the dirtier fossil fuel in the absence of high carbon prices, the International Energy Agency said.
The IEA, the energy agency for developed countries, said earlier this year that without a major shift away from coal, average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change.
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