Oilsands companies have an emissions problem and a plan to fix it — but who's listening?

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It's a Wednesday morning in June 2021, and executives from the five largest oilsands companies are ready to make their big splash, unveiling an unprecedented collaboration on a project with sky-high ambitions and a price tag in the tens of billions.

The ultimate goal is to tackle the problem that has dogged the sector for decades — its immense carbon emissions.

The competitors in the oil industry are about to lock arms and pledge to wipe out their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero alliance.

The group is made up of Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy. (ConocoPhillips will join a few months later.)

A buzz-generating launch from these companies would help send a clear message to politicians, the public and the investment community in Canada and abroad that the oft-criticized industry in northern Alberta is serious about stamping out its air pollution and finally cleaning up its image.

The day begins according to plan — the announcement is made and journalist interview requests come rolling in.

However, expectations of receiving substantial attention are dashed when TC Energy makes an announcement of its own: the Keystone XL pipeline is dead. The fatal end of the proposed pipeline quickly becomes the only Canadian energy story that anyone talks about that day, and for weeks to come.

For all the optimism and grandeur around Pathways to Net Zero and its potential to change the course of the industry's future, the unveiling barely made a ripple.

"Nobody paid attention to Pathways," said Deborah Yedlin, who chronicled the Alberta energy sector's many ups and downs as a columnist for more than two decades, and is now now the president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. 

"It has continued to sort of fly under the radar screen — it doesn't matter whether it's in the United States, in Canada, or overseas."

Even many within the industry who work in Calgary's office towers are unfamiliar with Pathways, beyond its goal of making the oilsands net zero in less than three decades.

Indeed, the rollout plan represents the broader failure of the industry to effectively communicate how it's going to reduce emissions and navigate a world that's increasingly focused on climate change.

The Pathways plan is divided into three phases, to meet goals for 2030, 2040 and eventually net-zero emissions by 2050. The companies plan to drive down emissions through a variety of techniques, such as using lower-emission sources of energy and electricity such as natural gas, hydrogen and small modular nuclear reactors.