Alberta premier wants to unveil carbon capture storage tax credits at COP 28

Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith makes a keynote speech at the LNG 2023 energy conference in Vancouver

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Monday she wanted to announce the details of investment tax credits to support carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects at the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai at the end of this year.

Smith made the announcement during a news conference on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary.

Alberta is Canada’s main producer of crude oil and natural gas, and its highest carbon-emitting province.

A number of the country’s largest energy producers have pinpointed CCS as key to cutting emissions without scaling back oil and gas output, but are reluctant to invest in the costly technology without public funding and have been awaiting details of the Alberta incentives.

The federal government in Ottawa announced a separate CCS tax credit last year, but the Pathways Alliance, a group of Canada’s six biggest oil sands producers including Suncor Energy and Cenovus Energy, has said more government support is needed.

COP 28 runs from Nov. 30 until Dec. 12.

(Reporting by Nia Williams; writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)