Canada’s oil production should more than double by 2015

Environmentalists have long criticized Canada as being an outlier on efforts to curb climate change. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called Canada an emerging energy superpower and has avoided doing anything to get in the way of that.

Canada has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, with more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production is expected to more than double by 2025. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more reserves. But critics say the enormous amount of energy and water needed in the extraction process increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, Canada vowed to cut emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, but Environment Canada reported last month that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions rose between 2012 and 2013 to 726 megatons. It was the fourth consecutive annual increase.