AWA Statement: New Pathways Agreement Fails to Protect Both Albertans and the Environment

July 22, 2026

The newly signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Governments of Canada and Alberta and the Oil Sands Alliance represents a significant step towards expanding oil sands. At the same time, the agreement creates an expedited approval process, raising serious concerns that environmental risks and long-term liabilities of both projects will not receive adequate assessment.

Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) is deeply concerned that the MOU prioritizes accelerating industrial development while failing to adequately address potential environmental consequences.

Two interconnected projects are named under the MOU: a new West Coast oil export pipeline and the Pathways carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The proposed pipeline would facilitate increased oil sands production, resulting in additional CO₂ emissions and further expansion of an industry that already carries “one of the most complex environmental challenges in the country.” Increased production would also generate more tailings. Alberta’s oil sands currently hold more than 1.7 trillion litres of toxic tailings, and governments and industry have yet to identify safe, long-term solutions for managing this waste. Before approving projects that will generate even more industrial waste, the governments must demonstrate how these additional tailings will be managed without creating further risks for downstream communities and ecosystems.

The MOU also advances the Pathways CCS project despite significant unanswered questions about its environmental impacts or its effectiveness. The project has been promoted as a key climate solution for the oil sands sector and as a path toward the Oil Sands Alliance’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions reduction by 2050. However, the emissions reduction commitments announced in the agreement are substantially lower than those previously promoted by the industry.

The Oil Sands Alliance had presented the Pathways project as capable of capturing around 22 megatonnes (Mt) of CO₂ per year by 2030. However, under the new agreement, the project is expected to capture only 6 Mt per year by 2035 — about 70 percent less than the earlier target — with a further 10 Mt of reductions targeted by 2045. This reduced commitment comes as the proposed West Coast pipeline is expected to generate approximately 20 Mt of additional annual emissions from increased oil production that will be added to the at least 80 Mt per year emitted by the oil sands. Even if the revised capture target is achieved, it would address only a small fraction of emissions from the sector while simultaneously being used to justify continued oil sands expansion.

Rather than rely on carbon capture to justify continued fossil fuel expansion, the provincial and federal governments must prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions at their source while ensuring that major industrial projects are subject to rigorous environmental assessments. Projects of this magnitude should not move forward unless they clearly serve the public interest, protect Alberta’s lands and waters, and leave future generations with fewer — not greater — environmental liabilities.

AWA believes a project of this scale demands rigorous scrutiny, not accelerated approvals. Assessing potential impacts to groundwater, wildlife, ecosystems, public health and safety, and Indigenous rights cannot reasonably be completed within such a compressed timeline while also ensuring meaningful consultation with all affected parties. We are deeply concerned that both projects could proceed without comprehensive environmental impact assessments. Albertans deserve a transparent, science-based evaluation of cumulative impacts of both projects before either moves forward.

“At a time when climate change is no longer a distant threat but a reality unfolding across Canada, it is deeply troubling to see both levels of government advancing policies that will further increase greenhouse emissions and environmental risks. This is not the climate leadership people in Canada have been promised, nor is it the action that this moment demands” said Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist at AWA.

For more information, contact: Pamela Narváez-Torres, (403) 283-2025, cs2@abwild.ca