An assessment of climate change issues in political platforms reveals clear distinctions between British Columbia’s four major parties. The assessment looks at the following four election issues with implications for climate change and the province’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets: liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil pipelines, the carbon tax and green jobs.

Alberta’s Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) is due for renewal in 2014, and the Government of Alberta is currently considering revisions to the regulation. A stronger SGER would help Alberta reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance social license to operate for sectors, such as the oilsands, that face continued scrutiny of environmental performance.

This briefing note outlines the Pembina Institute's perspective on how Alberta needs to strengthen its greenhouse gas regulations.

This backgrounder features new analysis showing that producing enough bitumen to fill the Keystone XL pipeline would lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and inhibit Canada’s ability to meet its climate targets.

There are several barriers that make exporting Canadian oilsands to overseas markets (and most notably Asian markets) a challenging prospect in the near future.

This briefing note discusses the most likely options to transport oilsands beyond the American Midwest, where the export market is currently saturated with oilsands exports and new Bakken shale oil production. These options include additional pipelines to the West (Enbridge Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain) and to the East (Enbridge Trailbreaker), as well as rail transport.

This report highlights the environmental risks associated with the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry more than half a million barrels of raw oilsands crude oil (known as bitumen) daily across important salmon-bearing rivers, coastal rainforests, and sensitive marine waters in British Columbia.

Filling the proposed KXL pipeline with oilsands will result in nearly a 50 per cent increase in oilsands production. Until environmental management of the oilsands is improved, KXL will cause significant environmental harm due to increased oilsands production.

These briefing materials provide a summary on the impact of oilsands development on land, species at risk, First Nations, water and tailings and greenhouse gases.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the pipeline issued by the U.S. Department of State overlooked key information and context on greenhouse gas emission management in Canada. In fact, a close inspection of Canada's climate record illustrates key weaknesses at the federal level as well as in Alberta.

This fact sheet and briefing note aim to supplement the dialogue by providing key information on oilsands emissions growth, future oilsands intensity improvements, and the climate policies in effect in Canada at the provincial and federal levels.

This in-depth study, prepared by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, explores the significance, benefits and impacts of the recent surge in natural gas production in North America, particularly in light of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change.

This document outlines the core elements of a strong climate change and energy electoral platform. Throughout the federal campaign, the Pembina Institute will be assessing parties' climate change and energy commitments using the criteria outlined in this document, which are drawn from our research and analysis on these topics.

Oil and gas activity is currently the largest resource industry in British Columbia, in terms of resource revenue to government and arguably also in terms of impact on the environment.

The first step in the oil and gas development process is the sale of tenures - or subsurface rights. In recent years the tenure system has been coming into conflict with communities, strongly held public environmental values and First Nations legal rights. Government is conflicted because it relies on the resource revenues from auctioning tenures, but at the same time is under pressure to respond to environmental and wildlife impacts. 

This briefing note draws from a recent Pembina Institute analysis of the likelihood of near term opportunities for oilsands exports from Canada to Asia via the West Coast. 

This backgrounder provides a general overview of life cycle assessment and examines the various analyses of oilsands greenhouse gas emissions conducted to date, and concludes with a recommended checklist for performing a robust life cycle assessment of oilsands greenhouse gas emissions to inform public policy decisions. 

This slideshow presents highlights of the report Pipeline to Nowhere?, which addresses several unanswered questions about the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.

This report addresses several unanswered questions about the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.