Canada: BC starts new incentives program to curb GHG emissions

The Canadian province of British Columbia started a Clean Infrastructure Royalty Credit Program for the oil and gas industry participants looking to invest in projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

The program, according to the province’s statement is looking to attract new private-sector funding for clean technologies.

The oil and gas companies in British Columbia are now eligible to submit a request for credits that will support projects aimed at reducing methane emissions from their current operations.

CIRCP program will complement British Columbia’s attempts to develop a liquefied natural gas industry.

Under the CIRCP program, the province will award royalty credits of up to CA$20 million (approximately US$15.48 million) this year, the statement reads, with the companies required to fund the entire cost of the project, and complete it, before they are eligible to recover up to 50 percent of their costs through royalty deductions.

Speaking of the new incentive program, British Columbia’s minister of natural gas development, Rich Coleman, noted that it expedites the use of clean technology in the province’s natural gas sector.

In January, the province put into effect its Greenhouse gas industrial reporting and control act (GGIRCA), that sets an emissions cap on LNG facilities and combines several pieces of existing greenhouse gas legislation into a single framework.

1 CAD = 0.774130 USD