Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Cenovus Energy demonstrates active policy engagement that is broadly misaligned with science-aligned climate policy. The company opposes climate regulations in Canada and promotes expansion of oil and gas production in Canada. Cenovus retains memberships in industry associations that undertake obstructive advocacy on regulations, such as Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and Pathways Alliance.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Cenovus has limited top-line positions on climate change. The company stated that it shares the world's concerns about climate change as per its website, accessed in July 2025. In the same webpage, the company raised concerns with the implementation of carbon pricing policy in Canada, emphasizing concerns on competitiveness and carbon leakage. Cenovus added here that carbon pricing “can be effective when it is applied equitably on a global scale” and appeared to promote incentives for decarbonization than a regulatory approach. Influencemap could not find any recent evidence of the company’s position on a 2050 net-zero target and the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Cenovus engages negatively on a range of federal climate regulations in Canada. In March 2025, Cenovus sent a joint industry letter to policymakers, calling for withdrawal of the Output-based Pricing System and the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap. The company reiterated these positions in a letter sent to Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in April 2025.
The company also opposed the methane regulations for the oil and gas sector in February 2024 comments, stating that the proposals are "prescriptive" and "punitive", and instead advocated for market-driven incentives over regulation for methane emissions reduction. According to the website, accessed in July 2025, Cenovus is unsupportive of the Clean Electricity Regulations, and its position on the Clean Fuel Regulation remains unclear.
The company also remains engaged on provincial regulations in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as disclosed through its lobbyist registry filings, although the company’s advocacy positions are not clear.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Cenovus opposes the energy transition and advocates for expansion of oil and gas production in Canada. In a June 2024 testimony to the Canadian Parliamentary Committee, Cenovus’ CEO Jon McKenzie advocated for increasing oil and gas production in Canada, while a brief submitted to the government a week after this testimony advocated for the strengthening of the oil and gas extraction industry. The company's filing in Canada’s federal lobbyist registry in July 2025 revealed its advocacy for new oil and gas infrastructure, including advocacy for provincial government investment in the West White Rose/White Rose offshore project. The company disclosed similar advocacy in Alberta Lobbyist Registry in July 2025.
Cenovus’ support for the energy transition appears to be predicated on government support for technology-led solutions for decarbonization, mainly carbon capture and storage (CCS), although the company often promotes CCS to support oil and gas production. The company appeared to call for CCS-aided oil production by advocating for policy to consider CO2-enhanced oil recovery as carbon offsets, as per its filing in Saskatchewan Lobbyist Registry in June 2025. Despite the company's support for CCS, it appears opposed to decarbonization policies that recommend or rely on CCS. For instance, Cenovus' November 2023 comments to the government on Canada’s Clean Electricity Regulations (CER), it opposed the CCS standards for electricity generating units, stating that "hypothetical technological advancements should not form the basis of government regulations."
Industry Association Governance: Cenovus demonstrates limited transparency around its membership to industry associations, and has not undertaken a review of its industry association memberships and climate policy engagement. Cenovus is a member of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce – all groups that engage negatively on climate-related policy. The company is also a founding member of Pathways Alliance, a group of six oil sands companies that advocate for oil production in Canada.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information, see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3, 2025.