Federal environment minister backs search for offshore oil but warns industry emissions caps are coming

Despite environmental groups warning against further exploration, andas wildfires and flooding decimatecommunities across Canada, the federal minister of environment and climate change is backingthe continuedsearch for oil off Newfoundland's coast for now.

On Monday, Norwegian energy giant Equinor announced it had hired a semi-submersible rig to explore the Flemish Pass Basin next year, about 500 kilometres east of St. John's.

Steven Guilbeault said Wednesdaythat oil will still be necessary in acarbon-neutral worldbut at a reduced rate.

"Even in the carbon-neutral world in 2050, we will still be using oil. [But] we willbe using far less oil than what we're using now,"Guilbeaultsaid at a funding announcement for Inuit-led climate adaptation and conservation in Nunatsiavut.

"We're a little above 100 million barrels a day. According to these organizations wewill be somewhere between 25 million to 30 million barrels a day in a carbon-neutral world in 2050."

Environmental groups have sounded the alarm on the implications of continued offshore oil exploration. In March, several groups called on Ottawa to reject the Bay du Nord project and attempted to sue the federal government over its development.

Guilbeault said Wednesday that Canada was the best performer among G7 countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 to 2021.

The federal minister said he's also working to table new regulations to cut and cap the oil and and gas sector's carbon emissions.

He said the plan, which he hopes to table in the fall,will cap emissions at the current level.

Guilbeaultalso said there won't be anymore "oil frontiers" companies willonly be able to drill in areas where oil is known to be located.

"We need to ensure that whatever oil or gaswe're still using in 2050 that the emissions from those operations are captured and sequestered," he said.

"We're not allowing companies to go in places where there isn't already oil development happening."

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