When Canada invests in carbon fairy tales, we all lose
By
Meg Sears
Opinion
December 23rd 2025
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Behind shiny pipes and piles of money lurks a fairy tale that Canada can produce, refine, ship and burn oil, with substantial carbon dioxide (CO2) being captured and harmlessly pumped into the ground, never to be seen again. This is inaccurate.
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On Nov. 16th, Canada received the “Fossil of the Day Award” at COP 30, shaming the country for its activities that hinder progress against global warming.
A key reason was Canada’s reversal of the goal to phase out fossil fuels, instead committing to increasing oil extraction — including committing $21.5 million to carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in Alberta’s oil patch.
Behind shiny pipes and piles of money lurks a fairy tale that Canada could produce, refine, ship and burn oil, with substantial carbon dioxide (CO2) being captured and harmlessly pumped into the ground, never to be seen again. This is inaccurate.
CCUS at a record scale is featured in the Nov. 27th Memorandum of Understanding between the federal and Alberta governments. The goal is to finance and to build the world’s largest CCUS project, ostensibly to produce the “lowest carbon intensity barrels of oil” in the world. In other words, less CO2 would enter the atmosphere to fill the barrel, but the oil would be just as polluting to ship and burn.
What’s the merit of the grander scheme? As a fresh graduate in chemical engineering and applied chemistry, my first job was in petroleum research. Forty-five years ago, oil companies were working on a brilliant idea: injecting CO2 into exhausted oil wells to flush out more crude oil. Observations from then remain relevant today.
CO2 usage and storage (CCUS) is touted as a means to produce more oil, with the more mobile CO2 supposedly remaining in the reservoir.
The big glitch is that reservoir fluids are complex mixtures that do not mix well with straight CO2. Injecting CO2 can cause larger molecules to solidify (precipitate) and this could clog up the reservoir — the opposite of what is needed if you want to extract more oil and to pump in lots of CO2. To keep reservoir fluids flowing, CO2 had to be mixed with hydrocarbons. Injecting higher-value mixtures risked throwing good money after bad, so one of my tasks was to model and optimize injection fluids.
Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is akin to having your cake and eating it too. But I have seen no evidence that counters decades-old knowledge that there are chemical and physical impediments to the process, writes Meg Sears
Names have changed, but the same firms are promoting the notion that CO2 can be injected into old reservoirs to not only get more liquid oil out, but incongruously, to trap CO2 gas in perpetuity. CCUS is akin to having your cake and eating it too. But I have seen no evidence that counters decades-old knowledge that there are chemical and physical impediments to CO2 being efficiently injected for oil recovery and storage in Alberta’s depleted reservoir. Indeed, long-term CO2 storage in depleted and potentially fracked formations is improbable.
A large-capacity deep well to receive CO2 at a “hub” for CCS (without “utilization”) — is on a schematic drawing board.
Carbon capture during industrial processes, with CO2 being incorporated chemically in products such as cement, may somewhat reduce large carbon footprints in a few applications. However, for significant emission reductions, Canada must urgently shift to lower-carbon energy sources (solar and wind with battery storage), industries and technologies.
Carbon capture from the air is not a solution, because CO2 in the atmosphere is very dilute. Costs — both financial and in terms of energy — are excessive, and would achieve an immeasurable reduction in atmospheric CO2. Industrial processes, such as CO2 dissolution in an amine solution and regeneration for storage in a deep well, are theatrics, not serious climate solutions. As well, CO2 pipeline ruptures can release lethal levels of CO2 in the vicinity.
Climate crises are mounting as global CO2 levels are accelerating past scientific “safe” thresholds and, as predicted, fires, smoke, droughts, floods, famine and extreme weather are worsening. Catastrophes are tracking the CO2 entering the air we share. Canada is suffering deeply — environmentally, socially, economically and in terms of public health.
Possible solutions are a mixed bag.
Electricity must replace carbon as the “currency” of energy, with widespread renewable generation and storage, electrification of buildings and transportation and heat pumps for temperature control.
New nuclear power is an expensive, hazardous delay and distraction from prompt action for the climate and resilience. Nuclear plants become toxic sites and possible strategic targets for aggressors. From mining to expended fuel and associated wastes, there are releases of radionuclides and an increasing toxic waste legacy, effectively forever.
Hydro, wind and solar with battery backup, deployed on buildings, over parking lots and integrated in the rural landscape, can fulfill our essential needs. Renewable electricity generation requires minerals, and mining also comes with impacts. Canada should double down on recycling elements in batteries and electronics (mining our waste), while new mining requires modern expert input and design reviews, including Indigenous wisdom.
Modernization to decrease energy use and materials “consumption” should aim to restore mankind to within boundaries of what Mother Earth can sustain. We have exceeded seven of nine planetary boundaries. It is no time to double down on increasing fossil fuel use.
The Climate-Aligned Finance Act in the Senate could financially empower robust solutions.
Present-day directions, policies and actions are not consistent with Canada’s commitments to scientific integrity and decision-making, nor reconciliation and the right to a healthy environment. Canada received its Fossil Award for carbon pseudoscience. It’s time to change course.
Meg Sears is the chair of Prevent Cancer Now, a non-profit that works to protect the environment and Canadians from cancer-causing agents in our environment, food and water, homes, schools, workplaces, communities and products.
December 23rd 2025
Meg Sears
Chair of Prevent Cancer Now