Understanding and responding to climate change
At Imperial, we
believe that Canada can achieve the twin goals of economic growth and
meaningful environmental progress for the prosperity and benefit of all
Canadians. We take the risks of climate change seriously and recognize that
the potential impact of a changing climate on society and ecosystems may prove
to be significant.
Scientific, technical and economic
research must continue so that we can gain a better understanding of this very
complex subject and reach the best policy decisions in Canada. At the same
time, we think that sensible actions are both justified and needed now. In
our view, the best path forward is technology-based, and we continue to make
significant investments in research and in energy efficiency initiatives and
technologies to reduce emissions from our operations. By doing so, we will
leave our children and grandchildren with a legacy of prosperity, a healthy
lifestyle and a sustainable source of energy that is both plentiful and
affordable.
Our actions
For more than a
decade, Imperial Oil has taken action to measure and understand greenhouse gas
emissions from our operations in order to establish a sound scientific,
technical and economic basis from which to address concerns about potential
climate change.
Voluntary monitoring and reporting
We support efforts with other companies and organizations to develop common
and accepted industry standards for measuring carbon emissions. We
participated for nearly a decade in Canada's Climate Change Voluntary
Challenge and Registry (VCR) program, which monitored greenhouse gas emissions
from industrial operations. This program formally ended in 2003.
Our
submission in the final year of the VCR program, covering 2002 operations,
received a gold level rating for the fifth time. It reported that greenhouse
gas emissions from company operated facilities were about the same as the
previous year. With divested operations included, the company's 2002
greenhouse gas emissions were 20 percent lower than in 1990. For 2003, based
on the VCR methodology, Imperial's greenhouse gas emissions were 0.5 percent
lower than 2002, despite increased volumes of crude oil production and
petroleum product sales.
Improving energy efficiency,
reducing emissions and improving air quality
Since the early 1970s
we have systematically improved the energy efficiency of our refining
operations. Today our refineries are 40 percent more energy efficient than
they were then -- saving enough energy each year to provide heat, light and
power to 400,000 Canadian homes. And we continue to participate in programs
such as ExxonMobil's Global Energy Management System, in which a team of
experts conducts a comprehensive "energy audit" of a refinery's operations
against world class benchmarks to identify and implement further improvements.
Cogeneration is another way Imperial is using emerging technologies to
increase energy efficiency while reducing emissions. Cogeneration, a process
of using one fuel, usually natural gas, to generate both steam and electricity
for industrial operations, is twice as efficient as conventional methods of
generating energy. Imperial's investment in cogeneration facilities will
total approximately $250 million. A 170-megawatt cogeneration plant was
completed and began operation in late 2002 at the company's Cold Lake facility
in Alberta, and a recently completed cogeneration unit at the Sarnia, Ontario
manufacturing complex, has the capacity to generate an additional 95
megawatts.
We also enjoy the best record among the 50
largest oil producers in Alberta for the recovery of natural gas associated
with crude oil production that would otherwise be flared or vented into the
air. The total amount of gas flared or vented has been reduced by 70 percent
since 1998 and in 2004, the most recent year of reporting, Imperial captured
99.8 percent of this gas in its Alberta operations.
Imperial
also encourages employees and customers to use energy wisely and efficiently.
We help sponsor the Clean Air Foundation's
Car Heaven program, which is designed to promote the retirement of older,
higher-emitting vehicles. In the Greater Toronto Area, we have launched a
campaign that provides information on the impact of motor-vehicle idling to
encourage customers to shut off their engines while waiting for a car wash.
Using research and technology to improve environmental performance
We believe that achieving real reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions without
impairing economic growth and prosperity will require a global
technology-development effort comparable to the effort needed to explore
space, to develop personal computing, and to engineer new types of drugs. This
is a major challenge, but one that can be faced with optimism based on the
great strides we have already taken on the frontiers of science and technology.
At Imperial we're committed to being part of that effort. Through our
affiliation with ExxonMobil's world-wide research program, we're participating
in the development of advanced vehicle technologies including hybrid and
fuel-cell vehicles, and we are also involved with the government-sponsored
Canadian Transportation Fuel Cell Alliance, which was formed to evaluate
fueling options for fuel-cell powered vehicles.
Also through
our affiliation with ExxonMobil, we participate in a
Stanford University led project in which scientists and other companies
and universities will work on a range of issues associated with energy needs
and supply options. The objective is to find innovative and commercially
viable new energy technologies that have the capability to substantially
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These will include identifying the most
promising technologies, accelerating their commercial application, overcoming
cost, performance and safety issues, and publishing the results. Both the
research and the project's findings will explicitly be shared with developing
countries, where much of the future growth in emissions will occur. In late
2004, we also entered into a 5 year, $10 million agreement with the University
of Alberta to establish the Imperial Oil Centre for Oil Sands Innovation, an
organization whose mandate is to find more efficient, economically viable, and
environmentally responsible ways to develop Canada's oil-sands resources.
Our position on the Kyoto protocol
In early April 2005, the
federal government released its implementation plan for the Kyoto protocol.
However, the specific measures companies and consumers will be required to
take in order to meet Canada's greenhouse-gas reduction target under Kyoto
have yet to be fully assessed. Because ours is a complex business that can
potentially be affected in many ways that are impossible to quantify without
specific information, any attempt to assess what impacts Kyoto might have on
Imperial's operations or results would be speculative.
Having
said that, we believe Canada can have both a strong and growing economy and
meaningful environmental progress. Those objectives are not mutually
exclusive. In fact, they are mutually dependent -- we need both. The key to
lowering global greenhouse gas emissions is to develop, on a global basis,
innovative, commercially viable technologies to improve energy efficiency and
reduce emissions. And investments of the scale required to develop and
implement these technologies can only come from a healthy and growing economy
.
At the same time, we recognize the importance of taking
positive action to minimize greenhouse gas and other emissions, consistent
with what makes business and economic sense. We will continue to pursue
economic means of improving energy efficiency in our own operations and in the
ways our fuels are used. We will continue to invest in proven technologies
such as cogeneration, in evolving technologies for more energy-efficient
oil-sands production, and in research into more advanced new technologies that
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We believe that to both
reduce the impacts of greenhouse gas emission and provide for continued
economic growth and prosperity for Canadians, an effective climate change
policy and Kyoto implementation plan should be guided by the following clear
objectives:
-
Develop common and accepted industry standards for measuring greenhouse gas
emissions and monitoring progress
-
Promote sensible, economic actions now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
-
Encourage use of commercially viable technologies to reduce emissions
-
Stimulate technological innovation for affordable long-term solutions
-
Help create an international framework that encourages the use of efficient
technologies through open markets, private investment and the rule of law
-
Encourage all nations to participate
-
Recognize that economic progress is essential for environmental stewardship
-
Provide flexibility to adjust policies with advances in science and technology
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