Emissions Reduction Alberta wants us to be ‘carbon positive’

Source: David Coglon · CONTEXT ENERGY EXAMINED · | July 2, 2020

Alberta non-profit focuses on helping industry become ‘carbon positive.’

Steve MacDonald and Mark Summers of Emissions Reduction Alberta. Photo by Jason Dziver

You may not have heard of Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), but this non-profit organization is a key player: quietly working to leverage government and industry aspirations for a low-carbon future into real-world solutions that can lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for Alberta, and indeed, the world.

It’s a sign of this organization’s importance that Steve MacDonald, ERA’s CEO, was in the room in Edmonton last October when the province’s United Conservative Party government announced regulations to manage GHG emissions.  In addition to setting new standards, the government’s new Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) system reinforces the province’s strategy of investing industry funds in emission-cutting technologies.

MacDonald stood alongside industry leaders to show support—and because the government-funded agency carries serious clout in any plan to tackle the province’s GHG emissions.

“We’re one of the few organizations in the country with a specific mandate to reduce GHG emissions and grow the economy by accelerating technological solutions,” says MacDonald, who’s had executive roles in various government ministries, including Innovation and Energy, before becoming ERA’s CEO in late 2015.

But it’s not just its mandate that sets ERA apart. It’s also the track record behind ERA, which this past year celebrated a decade of innovation.

Beginnings as the CCEMC

ERA originally launched in 2009 as the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC).  From the start, its creation signaled a home-grown approach to tackling climate change: large Alberta industrial emitters would be required to reduce their GHG emissions intensity by a certain percentage. Where they’re unable to reach the target, companies would have the option to buy carbon credits or pay $15 a tonne into a new Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund (CCEMF).