Steven Guilbeault is the Minister of Environment and Climate Change at the COP26 UN Climate Summit, Glasgow, 2021. Guilbeault claims that Canada does not have the infrastructure necessary to transport oil and gas to Europe.Alastair Grant/The Associated Press
Steven Guilbeault is the Environment Minister. He says Canada cannot realistically assist Europe in replacing its Russian oil imports using Canadian crude or gas. But, Canada can and does look at ways to export hydrogen.
Russia supplies Europe with about a third of its oil supplies, and more than 40% of its natural gas.
The Russian invasion in Ukraine is forcing the continent to end its dependency on it as soon as possible, but finding other sources is difficult.
Guilbeault claims that Canada doesn’t have the infrastructure necessary to transport oil and gas to Europe. And even if it did, European refineries are not equipped to handle the heavy crude Canada produces.
But he believes there are ways Canada could quickly work with Europe on exports clean and renewable energy, such as hydrogen. He said this because the continent was already making progress in this direction.
His comments echo statements made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Germany earlier today, who stated that he was hopeful Canada will supply Germany with hydrogen to help it become a zero emission country by 2045.
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