The opportunity for Canada and the interest, I think, in the reputation globally really links to our strong commitment to regulatory stringency as well as environmental protection.
My comment there really relates to the reality that our industry, the oil sands sector in particular, invested substantial amounts of resources, probably more than any other sector in environmental technology, as well as mitigating things such as GHG emissions, etc.
The opportunity is relatively substantial to be expanding upon this. The members of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers formed COSIA, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. They invested $1.3 billion in environmental technologies, and we're seeing the results. Our costs are coming down, and our footprints are getting less environmentally adverse, if you will.
Oil sands oil on a well-to-wheel basis is now comparable with the average in North America for any crude from a GHG perspective, and that's the result of the technology that's gotten us there. There are some transformative technologies that are out there right now, such as solvents and partial upgrading that can bring our GHG footprint down by as much as 80% more. That is very substantial, and can add a lot of value, but these are very expensive demonstrations.
Oil sands is a technology investment, and SAGD in particular has only been in production for the last 15 years. It was largely as a result of major R and D investments, and the right fiscal framework that got us to where we are.
The next phase is de-risking the technology we need for companies to invest in it on a commercial level. That's what we're talking about, so not an insignificant amount of capital.
What I've suggested and asked of this committee is a commitment to identifying those research and development opportunities, for improving our environmental performance, and defining those as clean technology.
This is very similar to what the federal government advanced in 2015 for clean energy, a capital cost allowance that enables companies that are investing in reducing our environmental footprint and GHGs to be able to write off that capital that changes the investment dynamics, and removes the disincentive to innovate, and encourages companies to continually improve.