According to the Liberal government’s long-promised plan, a clean energy economy won’t result in high unemployment in the nation’s energy towns. Instead, it will help Canada‘s workforce adapt to climate change.
If Canada plays its cards properly, the clean energy economy would generate so many jobs that there might not be enough workers to fill them, according to the report. Yet, some of it will necessitate that the conventional oil and gas sectors “aggressively” reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated during the extraction of the fuels.
Energy Transition Jobs
The federal Liberals pledged a roadmap that will protect jobs as Canada transitions from a combustion-energy superpower to a clean-energy economy more than three years ago, and now they’ve delivered with the 32-page “Sustainable Jobs Plan.”
The pledge to create jobs is consistent with remarks made in January by the Pathways Alliance, a group of six oilsands businesses seeking to reduce production emissions, including through massive carbon capture and storage systems.
The industry’s expenditures to decarbonize production, according to Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix, would “produce a boom in the oil-producing provinces that is equal to what happened in the ’80s and ’90s,” he said in a roundtable conversation with The Canadian Press on Jan. 16. According to Pathways, 35,000 new employment will result from this.
- The clean energy economy would generate so many jobs that there might not be enough workers to fill them.
- Produce a boom in the oil-producing provinces that is equal to what happened in the ’80s and ’90s.
- Some professions in the oil patch currently require the skills necessary for tasks like hydrogen generation and biofuel research.
For months, Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of natural resources, has stated that he likes the term “sustainable jobs” since it is more truthful.
She said that the federal legislation limiting emissions from oil and gas extraction and establishing a grid with no emissions would together with the fair transition plan “represent an unconstitutional and existential danger to the Alberta economy and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Albertans.”
On February 7, Trudeau and Smith met in Ottawa to discuss ways to work together on renewable energy, including Alberta’s willingness to offer additional government assistance to oil producers installing carbon capture and storage systems.
The elimination of the jobs transition plan, she claimed in her letter on Thursday, was a “non-negotiable condition” of Alberta agreeing to that.
By 2050, the demand for gas will be around half what it is today, and the need for oil will have decreased by 75%. Nonetheless, it claims that gas and oil will be required for non-combustion purposes, such as in plastics, solvents, lubricants, and waxes.
By 2050, Canada can still have a thriving, if smaller, oil and gas sector, but only if production-related emissions are made to be “ultralow.” According to the report, significantly reducing emissions from the production of fossil fuels in accordance with Canada’s pledges to combat climate change is both a competitive advantage and a source of long-term employment.
According to the report, some professions in the oil patch currently require the skills necessary for tasks like hydrogen generation and biofuel research, even though many people will need training for the new positions in clean energy and battery manufacture.