A new climate alliance was launched at COP26 this week. Called the Beyond Oil And Gas Alliance (BOGA), it is the first state-led initiative to promote a managed transition away from oil and gas production.
Leading this international effort, two countries, Costa Rica and Denmark are encouraging governments to end their reliance on oil and gas production and focus instead on developing clean, sustainable energy.
“We think that to be a climate leader you also have to lead on the difficult questions, and ending oil and gas extraction is definitely one of the defining questions of climate action,” Tomas Anker Christensen, Denmark’s climate ambassador, said in an interview with CBC’s The House.
Simon Donner, a professor and climate scientist at the University of British Columbia who also serves on Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body, told The House it’s unlikely Canada will join the alliance at this point.
However, Quebec’s commitment is a different matter. The provincial government has made the commitment to permanently ban all oil and gas exploration and extraction within the province – effectively closing the door to any further exploitation of its abundant natural gas reserves/
“We see provinces move first. This is what happened in terms of our public health system. It’s also what happened quite significantly for carbon pricing, with Quebec and British Columbia moving first and then the federal government adopting this minimum standard across the country,” said Caroline Brouillette, a Montreal-based policy expert at Climate Action Network Canada.
“So it totally makes sense that this is the way it would go forward in terms of putting an end to fossil fuel expansion in Canada.”
While Quebec does not currently produce any oil and gas, it does have 182 active exploration permits that cover 32,000 square kilometers (12,355 square miles) of land.
Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance objectives
Limiting global temperature increases to 1.5C is still possible, but it will require an urgent, comprehensive, and fast-moving action in every nation. This is basically why BOGA came about.
Even though countries made the bold decision to do something about global warming in Paris six years ago, the one thing that has been overlooked in both national policies and global climate diplomacy is the need to embark on a just transition away from oil and gas production.
BOCA says that transitioning away from fossil fuels means not only making strides on the demand side of the equation but also establishing clear pathways and timeframes on the supply.
Bottom line? It’s time we close the growing gap between fossil fuel production and our climate targets. This is why the Beyond Oil And Gas Alliance is necessary.
The alliance has four objectives:
- Strengthen global climate ambition by aligning oil and gas production with the Paris Agreement goal of well below 2oC, pursuing efforts for 1.5oC
- Raise the issue of fossil fuel supply on the international climate and energy agenda, and promote dialogue on the need for a managed and just phase-out of oil and gas production
- Capture and leverage momentum from first movers on oil and gas phase-out and encourage others to take action, by providing a home for those new commitments
- Create an international community of practice that can support governments in delivering their commitment to a managed and just phase-out of oil and gas production
