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This report has a sharable inforgraphic, click here to view.

Alberta is set to renew its 2007 Specified Gas Emitter Regulation (SGER), which will expire in September 2014. Recent indications are that Alberta is considering a “double-double” approach, which doubles the current regulatory standard of a 12 per cent intensity improvement and CAD$15 price ceiling. This report examines the implications of a renewed SGER with both a 24 per cent greenhouse gas intensity improvement that sets the greenhouse gas reductions required from the oil and gas sector and a $30 per tonne price ceiling that sets a maximum cost obligation to comply with the regulations.

A renewed SGER policy based on double-double parameters would deliver emission reductions inside and outside the oil and gas sector while providing research and development incentives through technology fund recycling. The costs of the double-double proposal are less than the price of a Timbit per barrel, or $0.13; however, emission reductions would be equal about 20 per cent of Canada’s remaining Copenhagen emissions gap in 2020.