Resilient LLP (formerly DeMarco Allan LLP)
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Canada Publishes Finalized Clean Electricity Regulations

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Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change (the “Minister”) yesterday announced the finalization and publication today of the Clean Electricity Regulations (“CER”) in the Canada Gazette, Part II (see our earlier bulletin on the draft CER here). CER establishes significant annual emission limits (“AEL”) to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from fossil fuel-generated electricity generation facilities in all provinces and territories across Canada starting in 2035. Requirements to reduce emissions under CER start in 2035 with a pathway to reaching net-zero in 2050. Environment and Climate Change Canada (“ECCC”) estimates that the CER would reduce approximately 181 megatonnes of cumulative GHG emissions between 2024 and 2050. The CER imposes significant registration, record keeping, and reporting obligations on covered electricity generation facilities.   This bulletin briefly summarizes the key provisions of CER and federal financial support to help decarbonize and expand Canada’s electricity system.   Scope. A “unit” is regulated under the CER if it meets all of the following three criteria: It has an electricity generation capacity of 25 megawatts (“MW”) or greater (or is a new unit located at a facility where the sum of all new electricity generation unit capacity is 25 MW or greater); It generates electricity using fossil fuel; and It is connected, directly or indirectly, to an “electricity system” that is subject to North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) standards. A unit that has an electricity generation capacity of less than 25 MW is deemed to meet the first criteria if the unit’s commissioning date is on or after January 1, 2025 and the sum of the electricity generation capacity of all units, other than planned units, that are located at the facility where the unit is located and that also have commissioning dates on or after January 1, 2025 is at least 25 MW.   CER does not apply…

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Canada Growth Fund Announces First Transaction under CCfD and Offtake Mandate

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Canada Growth Fund (CGF) today announced that it has completed its first transaction under its mandate to use nearly half of its $15B budget for carbon contracts for difference (CCfDs) and offtake agreements. CGF is the federal agency (a subsidiary of Canada Development Investment Corporation) with a mandate to “build a portfolio of investments that catalyze substantial private sector investment in Canadian businesses and projects to help transform and grow Canada’s economy at speed and scale on the path to net-zero.” PSP Investments acts as the investment manager for CGF through a wholly-owned subsidiary. Via a hybrid security, CGF has agreed to invest $200M in Entropy Inc., a Calgary-based developer of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects. Alongside the investment, CGF and Entropy have entered into a “carbon credit offtake commitment” agreement (CCO) whereby CGF has committed to purchase up to 9M tonnes (up to 600K tonnes per annum (tpa) over a 15-year term) of TIER or equivalent carbon credits from Entropy projects. The initial project to benefit from the CCO is intended to be the Advantage Glacier Phase 2 project, drawing up to 185K tpa at an initial price of $86.50 per tonne, for a total of approximately 2.8M tonnes over the 15-year term. Upon successful deployment of the initial 600K tpa of CCO, CGF may make available a further 400K tpa of CCOs for additional Entropy CCS projects in Canada. This initial transaction notably appears to be in the form of an offtake agreement, rather than a contract for difference. The Globe and Mail reported that other project proponents, including larger oil and gas producers and members of the cement and chemical industries, have been attempting to negotiate contracts with the CGF at rates higher than the initial price of $86.50 per tonne agreed in this initial transaction. For further information or to…

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IPCC Releases Highly Anticipated Mitigation Report

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its final installment of the Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group III’s report on the global assessment of climate change mitigation progress and pledges “Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change” (the Report). It also released an accompanying Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary. The Report considers and documents the scientific, technological, environmental, economic, and social aspects of mitigation of climate change and notes the growing role of non-state and sub-national actors including cities, businesses, Indigenous Peoples, citizens, transnational initiatives, and public-private entities in addressing the impacts and causes of climate change. The Report has been highly anticipated and is the first mitigation report that the IPCC has published since 2014. It provides an unprecedented level of scientific analysis on the options to mitigate climate change, including a significant focus on carbon dioxide removals and the costs of emissions reductions. This bulletin briefly highlights key findings of the Report. Recent developments and current trends. The Report notes that: Total greenhouse (GHG) emissions continued to rise during the period 2010–2019, largely attributed to urban areas, and that the average annual GHG emissions during 2010–2019 were higher than in any previous decade. Reduced emissions from industrial processes and fossil fuels have been more than offset by increased emissions from rising global activity levels in industry, energy supply, transport, agriculture, and buildings. Global GHG emissions in 2030 associated with the implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) announced prior to COP26 make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during this century. Policy, cost, deployment of low-emission technologies and finance. The Report notes that: The cost of low-emission technologies such as photovoltaics, onshore and offshore wind, concentrating solar power, and batteries for passenger electric vehicles (EVs) has continued to decrease since 2010, as demonstrated by an over…

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Ontario Proposing Legislative Changes to Support Carbon Storage

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The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (the Ministry) is seeking stakeholder feedback on proposed legislative changes to improve regulatory clarity and remove prohibitions on granting authorizations to use Crown land for carbon capture and storage (CCS) activities. The Ministry has also released a discussion paper on carbon storage, providing background on CCS and potential suitable sites in Ontario. This bulletin briefly summarizes the key changes:   Amendments to the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act   Proposed Amendments to the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act include: narrowing the prohibitions on the injection of carbon dioxide so that, going forward, the prohibition would no longer apply to potential carbon storage projects related to activities in wells regulated under the act other than for the purpose of carbon sequestration, when used in association with a project to enhance the recovery of oil or gas; adding the ability for the Ministry to enter into agreements with companies that want to use wells to explore, test, pilot or demonstrate new technologies (such as CCS) in relation to wells used for oil, gas, solution-mined salt as well as underground storage resources subject to Indigenous consultation requirements; and enhancing provisions for corporate accountability and allowing for the issuance of orders to prevent risks to the public or environment. Amendments to the Mining Act   Proposed changes to the Mining Act would allow the Ministry to grant authorizations to use Crown land for carbon storage activities.   Purpose   The Ministry notes that the proposed legislative amendments seek to provide greater regulatory clarity and support new energy concepts and technologies including CCS, as CCS is not currently subject to the provisions of the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act framework. The Ministry indicated that entering into agreements with CCS project proponents at the pilot and demonstration stage will provide valuable knowledge, learning,…

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