Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Carbon capture and climate intervention · Canada · 2014

Boundary Dam 3 carbon capture unit captured 7,095,042 tonnes by September 2025

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 1 none on record · 3 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

SaskPower's carbon capture unit on Boundary Dam Unit 3 in Saskatchewan cost about C$1.5 billion, and the company's own figures show 7,095,042 tonnes captured from 2014 to September 2025. What is at stake for nature is whether the captured tonnage cuts emissions from the plant, which the sources do not measure.

What?
SaskPower added a carbon capture unit to Boundary Dam Unit 3 in Saskatchewan and reports 7,095,042 tonnes captured through September 2025. SaskPower
Where?
Boundary Dam power station, Saskatchewan, Canada Global News
When?
Capture recorded from October 2014 to September 2025; Units 4 and 5 not converted as of 2018. SaskPower
Who?
Gained
  • SaskPower — Chose not to convert Units 4 and 5, citing cheaper natural gas Global News
Lost
None on record
Harmed
None on record
Why?
For Units 4 and 5, Global News says natural gas was cheaper; the sources reviewed give no reason for the Unit 3 retrofit. Global News
How?
A capture unit added to one coal unit; the final use of the captured CO2 is reported but not verified (see unknown).
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

The carbon capture unit added to Boundary Dam Unit 3 cost about C$1.5 billion, Global News reported in July 2018.

Units 4 and 5 at the same plant were not converted because natural gas was cheaper, Global News reported.

SaskPower's own data show 7,095,042 tonnes of CO2 captured from October 2014 to the end of September 2025.

SaskPower reported 236,512 tonnes captured in the third quarter of 2025 alone, in an October 2025 update.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: captured CO2 is piped 71 km to the Weyburn oil field for enhanced oil recovery, under a contract with Whitecap extended to 2034.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: SaskPower paid Cenovus a penalty for not delivering the agreed CO2 volume and renegotiated the contract.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: a long-term capture rate of 57%, after a target cut from 90% to 65%, and a design target of 1 million tonnes a year that was never reached.
    • None on record The sources reviewed do not give the net climate effect of any additional oil produced from the captured CO2.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: ✓ Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Company or project

    1. BD3 status update, Q3 2025
      SaskPower · 2025-10-27

    Press and investigations

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