The Alberta premier speaks to National Post about what she’s hoping to accomplish at the COP28 conference
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is at the COP28 conference in Dubai.
Former premier Jason Kenney derided the event as a “gabfest” back in 2021, but Smith has gone with the specific mission of pitching investment in Alberta and boosting the province’s new incentives for carbon capture and storage.
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She’s also there at the same time as Liberal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who has announced new methane regulations and is poised to announce an emissions cap on the oil and gas sector. Both are deeply concerning to Alberta’s conservative government.
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Smith spoke to National Post’s Tyler Dawson from Dubai. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Have you spoken yet with Steven Guilbeault? How did that go?
I’ve seen him a couple of times, so we’ve exchanged pleasantries. But I have to say that I do have a much better relationship with the other federal minister here, (Innovation) Minister (François-Philippe) Champagne.
I think we do have a very good story to tell in Dubai. So, I wish we’d been able to come here with more of a spirit of collaboration. I’m not impressed that minister Guilbeault is (intending) to drop two unilateral policies at this conference without having consulted with us. So, as you can imagine, the relationship’s a little strained.
What have you heard from people regarding the carbon capture and storage grants?
We’re already at the forefront on carbon capture, utilization, storage technology, and I’ve seen by being here just how far ahead we are. In Alberta, we’ve mapped out our geology, we have already built a carbon trunk line, we have (Shell Canada’s) Quest project that has already safely stored 11.5-million megatonnes of emissions. We have 25 hubs that have been licensed. And we have several projects that are going to be in operation in 2026 and 2027.
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Whereas other jurisdictions haven’t even done the mapping and they’re not even talking about having deployment until 2030. So the fact that we are already ahead, and now the federal and provincial government together have created a significant incentive to attract even more investment to close the gap with the United States’ incentives, I think we’re going to get a huge amount of interest in that and I’m looking forward to to seeing what other projects materialize.
Back in 2021, Jason Kenney had called COP a ‘gabfest.’ Why do you think it’s important for Alberta to be there?
If we’re not here to tell the Alberta story, no one else is. I can tell you, Minister Steven Guilbeault is not here to tell Alberta’s story. He hasn’t talked about our methane-emissions reduction, he hasn’t talked about our emission-reduction plan that has funded 260 projects and he’s certainly not celebrating all of the things that we have done well.
We need to get our story out so people understand that we are leaders in our own right at the provincial level, people need to understand as well how our our Confederation works. That we own the resources at the provincial level, and we have the right to develop them. So I think that both Alberta and Saskatchewan realized it, especially for this conference.
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In terms of things people are talking about, has Alberta’s green energy moratorium come up?
Oh, no, it hasn’t come up. It’s just a pause as we develop the framework to deal with siting decisions to make sure it’s not on prime agricultural land, and to make sure that we deal with reclamation at the end. So I think people understand some of the environmental motivations at work.
Does that surprise you?
I don’t think so. I think what has happened at this conference is that everybody has begun to realize that we need a lot more baseload power.
There was a nuclear agreement that was signed with many countries, including Canada, to develop out nuclear power. And I think that carbon capture, utilization and storage has really taken centre stage as well.
So I think people are expanding out their understanding of all of the different ways that we can get to carbon neutrality. And so I think there are some limitations, as we all know, with intermittent power. So I think people are looking at some of the large-scale solutions.
What do you think has been the most valuable moment of your time there so far?
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I was able to do a panel with the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.
That’s relevant for many other countries. Certainly it’s relevant to other provinces who also have delegations here.
I’ve been pleased that we’ve been able to really demonstrate that carbon capture, utilization storage is not just a theoretical concept. It’s happening at a scale in Alberta and Saskatchewan that can be implemented around the world.
Alberta put out a pretty fiery statement in response to Guilbeault’s new methane regulations. What’s next in that fight for Alberta?
Well, I can tell you, we’re just simply not going to allow the federal government to take any action that will shut in our production. So we will defend our constitutional rights to be able to develop our resources and develop the conservation policies around (them).
What that looks like, I’ll still have to wait and see what the the two policies look like in detail, to understand how we’ll proceed with our approach going forward. But we’re just not simply going to sit back and allow the federal government to presume to regulate our industry and to shut-in production. It’s just not going to happen.
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Lastly, what is Dubai like?
Everything’s big here, they’ve got a shopping mall that has a ski hill built into it, they have a global village where they’ve got a replica of every major site from every major country of the world. So it feels a little bit like Las Vegas, and then a little bit, as well, like a major investment and trade hub. So I’ve just been surprised at how futuristic this place is.
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