Canadians see our energy products as boost to global sustainability

CALGARY, AB – A strong majority of Canadians (more than seven in ten respondents) believe Canada’s liquified natural gas (LNG) can help improve global energy security and sustainability efforts, according to a new public opinion poll conducted by Research Co. for advocacy organization Canada Action during September 16 and 17.

Seventy-three percent of respondents said our country should advocate for Canada’s energy sector as a leader in environmentally sustainable production. Almost eight in ten respondents (79 percent) said they prefer to use Canadian energy in their day-to-day lives.

“These latest polling results confirm exactly what we’ve found in our media interviews, community events, social media engagements and public interactions over the last number of months,” Canada Action founder and chief spokesperson Cody Battershill explained.

“Canadians are coming to understand the world will need oil and gas long into the future, and so Canada should continue to play a strong role as a country that respects workers, families and Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and that adheres to the strictest environmental, health and safety regulations in the world,” Battershill added.

The latest poll questioned 1,000 adults online across Canada and found strong support for Canada’s energy sector. Additional findings include:

• A majority of Canadians (56 percent of those polled) think it’s wrong for Canada to forfeit energy opportunities to other countries with higher emissions, when thinking about LNG. This represents a rise in public support of five percent since this question was asked in a March poll.
• Three-in-four Canadians (75 percent) agree that exporting responsible and reliable Canadian energy, expertise, and technology to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one way Canada can play an important role in addressing climate action. This is an increase of one percent since the question was asked in March.
• Given that global energy demand is forecasted to grow 50 percent by 2050, four-in-five Canadians (80 percent) support trade in all Canadian energy technologies including solar, wind, hydro, hydrogen, geothermal, biofuels, and oil and gas.
• More than three-in-five Canadians (63 percent) agree that investing in Canada’s oil and gas sector makes sense if you value climate leadership, social progress, and transparency.
• After having been informed that from 2000 to 2019, the emission intensity of Canada’s oil sands operations dropped by approximately 33 percent due to technological and efficiency improvements, almost three-in-four Canadians (73 percent) agreed we should advocate for Canada’s energy sector as a leader in environmentally sustainable production.

Canada Action is a non-partisan, national coalition that advocates for the responsible development of Canada’s various natural resources, for the industries that move that development forward, and for the workers, families and communities the sector supports.

The poll’s margin of error, which measures sample variability, is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.