Company: IMO
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000049938-25-000015
Chunk: 7

Company: IMPERIAL OIL LTD
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 7
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, as well as the potential to incur substantial financial liabilities, if the company does not manage those risks effectively. Environmental hazards and risks, including severe weather, drought, forest fires and geological events, may impact the company’s operational performance. For example, the company's oil sands operations were particularly affected by extreme cold weather in 2022 and wildfires in 2016. The ability to insure risks is limited by the capacity of the applicable insurance markets, which may not be sufficient to cover the likely cost of a major adverse operating event. Accordingly, the company’s primary focus is on prevention, including through its rigorous operations integrity management system. The company’s future results will depend on the continued effectiveness of these efforts. See also “Safety, business controls and environmental risk management” under “Operational and other factors” in this Item 1A below.

Climate change, energy transition and greenhouse gas restrictions 

Greenhouse gas emissions reductions 

Driven by concern over the risks of climate change, the provinces and the Government of Canada have adopted or have revised regulatory frameworks to report on or reduce greenhouse gas emissions including emissions from the production and use of oil and gas and their products, as well as increase the use of or support for different emission-reduction technologies. These actions are being taken both independently by national and regional governments and within the framework of United Nations Conference of the Parties’ summits under which Canada has endorsed objectives to reduce the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the coming decades, with an ambition ultimately to achieve "net zero". Net zero means that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities would be balanced by actions that remove such gases from the atmosphere. Expectations for transition of the world’s energy system to lower-emission sources, and ultimately net zero, derive from hypothetical scenarios that reflect many assumptions about the future (including supportive policy and technology advancements) and reflect substantial uncertainties. The company’s actions with respect to the energy transition carry risks that the transition, including underlying technologies, government policies, and markets as discussed in more detail below, will not be available or develop at the pace or in the manner estimated by current net-zero scenarios. The success of Imperial's strategy for the energy transition will also depend on its ability to recognize key signposts of changes in the global energy system on a timely basis, and the corresponding ability to direct investment to the technologies and businesses, at the appropriate stage of development, to best capitalize on the company's competitive strengths. Imperial’s results may be impacted if the implementation pace and uncertainty of policy reduces the global competitiveness of the