COSIA members hope to cut GHG intensity by 10 to 30 per cent over the next five years, while also sharing technologies to lessen the industry's impacts on land and water and deal with tailings ponds.

Environmentalist Keith Stewart of Greenpeace says he strongly disagrees with a suggestion by the head of an oilsands industry research consortium that it's well placed to help spend grants paid for by Alberta carbon taxes.

Canada's oil and gas industry is facing increased environmental and budgetary pressures, with experts saying the sector is struggling to balance the two.