Liquefied natural gas and oil exports from Canada could cut down global greenhouse gas emissions considerably, according to the “Refuel: What Canadian LNG and oil exports could mean for global emissions” report published by the Public Policy Forum in partnership with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Future of Business Centre.
The report revealed that the life-cycle emissions of Canadian LNG was about 40 percent lower than those of US LNG and significantly under the international average. This is due to clean hydropower for liquefaction, low formation CO₂, new resources and upstream technologies, tight methane controls, and reduced shipping distances to Asia.
LNG from British Columbia in particular recorded one of the lowest life-cycle emissions worldwide. Should Canadian LNG replace domestic coal, emissions could be reduced by 50 percent.
The report added that export projects in this sector supported the Indigenous economic participation cause.
“This report reinforces what we’ve been saying for years: cleaner energy is Canadian energy. When our LNG and oil displace higher-emitting alternatives abroad, global emissions go down, not up,” said Candace Laing, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, in a statement. “Canada has a strategic advantage here, from cleaner production to Indigenous partnerships, but we need a policy environment that allows us to actually compete in global markets.”
Should all LNG projects in Canada be constructed and hit 47.6 million tonnes per years of export capacity by 2035, net global CO₂e reduction could range from 40-70 million tonnes each year, per a prediction by Navius Research. This corresponds to cutting 6-10 percent of Canada’s total annual emissions.
Report authors Mark Cameron and Arash Golshan recommended a coordinated national energy-export strategy that would see Canadian LNG used in place of coal or high-emission fuels in Asia and clean Canadian alternatives displacing crudes like Venezuelan heavy oil. They also suggested strengthening Indo-Pacific alliances to bolster coal-to-LNG transitions, accelerate essential infrastructure, and supporting global product-level carbon accounting and production-based intensity standards.
The report also revealed that Canadian heavy oil barrels hold a 18–51 kg CO₂e per-barrel advantage, which could increase to 35–68 kg with planned carbon-capture infrastructure. Since 2005, the emissions intensity of Canada’s heavy oil has improved by about 30 percent.
Nonetheless, the report cautioned against surrendering local oil and gas products’ economic, strategic, and environmental advantages by emphasizing recognition to the detriment of emissions reduction.
“The report’s conclusions counter the simplistic narrative that more oil and gas equals more emissions. It’s more nuanced than that; it matters what they replace, and emissions are counted globally. We need to leverage the economic, strategic, and environmental advantages our products have to offer to ourselves, our allies and the world,” said Inez Jabalpurwala, the PPF’s president and CEO.
The PPF is a non-partisan organization that collaborates with all levels of government and the public service, the private sector, labour, post-secondary institutions, NGOs and Indigenous groups to bolster policy outcomes for Canadians.