Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Pathways Alliance, also known as the Oil Sands Pathways to Net-Zero, demonstrates policy engagement that is broadly misaligned with policy pathways to limit global warming in line with the Paris Agreement. The group undertakes obstructive advocacy on federal climate regulation in Canada and advocates for continued oil and gas production.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Pathways Alliance exhibits negative top-line positioning on climate change. Pathways Alliance does not support climate regulations: for example, in a comment submitted to Canada’s federal government in August 2024, it opposed a regulatory approach to climate policies to advocate for incentive-based policy approaches. InfluenceMap could not find any recent evidence of the group’s support for the goals of the Paris Agreement or Canada’s 2050 net-zero target.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: Pathways Alliance opposes the key climate regulations in Canada. The group has campaigned against the Oil and Gas Emission Cap since 2021. In March 2024 Pathways Alliance sent a joint industry letter to policymakers, advocating for the withdrawal of the policy. More recently, in a press release on the website, it appeared to endorse a letter sent to policymakers by energy sector executives, which opposed the implementation of the policy. This letter had also called for the repeal of the Output-based Pricing System, which implements an emissions trading system for large industries in Canada.
Pathways Alliance did not support the Methane Regulation for the Upstream Oil and Gas Sector in comments submitted in February 2024, and advocated to weaken the flaring criteria and the scope of emissions considered in the regulation. It also did not support the draft Clean Electricity Regulations that sets a GHG emissions standard on electricity generation units in November 2023 comments. On this policy, it advocated for weakening the policy timelines from 2035 to 2050 and called for exemptions for co-generation plants.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Pathways Alliance opposes the energy transition and advocates for increased oil and gas production in Canada. In feedback submitted to the federal government in February 2025, summarized in the website, the group advocated for policy measures to enable continued investment in oil and gas production. Similarly, the group disclosed its advocacy for several measures to expand the oil and gas sector in Canada in the website in March 2025. This included advocacy to remove barriers to investment, repeal of the ‘The Tanker Ban’, reform of the Impact Assessment Act, and withdrawal of Competition Act Amendments.
A key portion of Pathways Alliance advocacy is focused on promoting technology-led solutions for decarbonization, mainly carbon capture and storage (CCS/CCUS). It frequently engages on CCS policy with the federal and Alberta governments, and advocates for government-industry collaboration in CCS development. In an August 2024 submission to the federal pre-budget consultation, the group advocated for government incentives to develop CCS. However, the group’s support for oil sands sector decarbonization using CCS is underpinned by Canada becoming "a preferred supplier of oil to meet the forecasted ongoing demand." The group’s position on CCS and oil thus runs contradictory to the latest scientific guidance from the IPCC which calls for an overall reduction in fossil fuel use. In addition, while Pathways Alliance’s positions generally support the decarbonization of oil production, it has neither acknowledged nor supported measures to reduce the emissions that arise during the final use of oil (Scope 3 emissions) which tends to be the highest source of emissions in the oil value chain.
Despite this support for CCS, Pathways Alliance has opposed the CCS requirements for fossil-fuel fired co-generation plants under the draft Clean Electricity Regulations in November 2023 comments.
This summary was last updated in Q3 2025.