Even though Canada has the tar sands it is still possible for the Canadian economy to lower it’s carbon output. According to some recent research into the matter by The David Suzuki Foundation, Canada can compete better with existing low-carbon economies by focusing on being more environmentally friendly and using alternative energy solutions to the tar sands.

In Low-Carbon Energy Futures: A Review of National Scenarios, the TEFP summarizes common themes in leading greenhouse gas reduction strategies for eight countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study shows that:

• Canada and other industrialized countries have the technology to achieve an 80 per cent reduction in their energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• The transition to a low-carbon energy future will be transformative, requiring a boom in clean-energy technologies and low-energy practices at least as significant as the post-Second World War boom in fossil fuel consumption.
• Per capita fuel and electricity consumption is about twice as high in Canada, the U.S. and Australia as it is in France, Germany, Sweden and the U.K. Yet even those countries produced scenarios that targeted 80 per cent reductions in their remaining GHG emissions by 2050.

Read more at the David Suzuki Foundation.
Here’s the full PDF report.