By Nia Williams
(Reuters) -Canada unveiled finalized Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) on Tuesday that aim to create a net-zero electricity grid by 2050, abandoning its previous target of having an emissions-neutral grid by 2035.
Ottawa dialled back its original target after feedback from some provinces and energy industry participants, who said the draft CER regulations would make electricity supply in Canada less reliable, more expensive and risked creating stranded assets, government officials said in a briefing.
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Canada already generates 85% of its electricity from clean sources like hydropower, wind and solar, but the less ambitious regulations mean it will be harder for the country to meet its climate target of cutting carbon emissions 45–50% below 2005 levels by 2035.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve backed off the ambition in terms of decarbonization of the grid, but we have learned through consultation that there was a need for some more flexibility,” Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in an interview.
The finalized regulations will cut nearly 181 megatonnes of cumulative carbon emissions from the grid between 2024 and 2050, while the draft regulations had aimed to cut 342 megatonnes by the middle of this century.
A previous target of limiting emissions from any power-producing unit to 30 tonnes of carbon per gigawatt hour was changed to a higher limit of 65 tonnes per gigawatt hour. Power-generating facilities will also be able to emit a further 35 tonnes per gigawatt hour if they use emissions offset credits.
Another flexibility is that facilities will be expected to stick to an annual emissions limit, instead of a strict performance standard to be met at all times.
Co-generation facilities that produce electricity that does not feed into the grid, such as those operated by some oil sands companies in northern Alberta, will not be subject to the CER.
Canada’s main oil and gas-producing province Alberta was firmly opposed to the draft CER and said the finalized regulations are still unreasonable and interfere with provincial jurisdiction. Alberta plans to challenge the regulations in court.
“We would propose a quicker and cheaper alternative solution which involves the federal government completely abandoning any attempt to regulate or otherwise interfere with Alberta’s governance over our provincial power grid,” the government said in a statement.
The finalized regulations are realistic and achievable, albeit quite different from the first draft published in 2023, said Scott MacDougall, program director of electricity at the Pembina Institute.
“The CER offers a set of guardrails that define when (net zero) is going to happen and will help spur energy investment,” MacDougall said.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Stephen Coates)
