Federal parties fuzzy on offshore future as scientists call for end to extraction

As prominent climate scientists argue that new offshore oil and gas extraction must end off Canada's East Coast, the three main political parties either support continued development or are unclear on precisely what they would change.

Andrew MacDougall, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University who contributed to the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- or IPCC -- report, says if Canada is to meet its international commitments to keep temperature rise within safe limits, the age of offshore fossil fuels will have to wind down.

"If the government is serious about Canada's commitment (in the Paris agreement) to help reach the 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius target, there is no further need for oil and gas development," he said in an interview from his office in Antigonish, N.S., on Monday. "All of the fossil fuels that are necessary for transition have already been found."

The 2015 Paris agreement committed signatories to cutting carbon emissions to levels that would limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial times by the end of this century. Scientists have concluded in IPCC reports that if emissions goals aren't met, more frequent and worse heat waves, droughts, mass migrations and flood-inducing downpours can be expected.

MacDougall said climate modelling indicates the winding down of offshore oil and gas must begin in the mandate of the next federal government: "This is the decade where Canada's emissions really need to come down ....They've stabilized, but they have to start dropping if we have any hope of making 2050 targets (of net zero carbon emissions.)"