Canada announced regulations Monday to cap carbon emissions from its oil and gas industry and reduce the release of greenhouse gases, a move bitterly opposed by the energy industry and met with lukewarm support from some environmentalists who say the rules are not strict enough.

Canadian officials said the country would cut emissions from its energy sector by 35% over 2019 levels by 2030. The regulations, which include financial incentives and credits, flesh out the government’s announcement in December that it intended to limit emissions.

“We’re asking the oil and gas sector to invest their record profits into pollution cutting projects,” Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s environment minister, said at a news conference. “Every sector must do its part. Oil and gas companies are no exception.”

The United States is the largest importer of Canadian fossil fuels, with most coming from oil sands in Alberta, which require large amounts of energy for production.

Canada’s oil and gas industry is the country’s largest source of carbon emissions, accounting for about one-third of the overall total.

While some oil sands operations have reduced the amount of carbon emitted for each barrel they produce, overall production has increased, raising emissions from oil sands by 142% over the last 19 years.

The Canadian government imposed taxes on carbon that helped reduce emissions in many sectors of the economy from 1990 to 2022. Still, Canada’s overall greenhouse emissions rose by 16.5% during that period, largely because the oil and gas industry raised their production levels.

“It is a significant moment for Canada,” Julia Levin, the associate director for climate at Environmental Defence, an environmental group, said before the announcement. “But there are troublesome loopholes.” These include allowing companies that fail to make cuts to buy offsets, she said.

Climate change has been a key issue for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, but the emissions cap and its regulations underscore the politically difficult balancing act Trudeau faces.

While many environmental groups and climate scientists say fossil fuel needs to be phased out in favor of green energy, Trudeau has long insisted that Canada needs a strong oil industry to finance the transition away from fossil fuels.

That commitment extended to the government buying an oil pipeline from its American owner and paying for its expansion.

The government says the cap, which will take effect in 2030, is not an effort to curbing oil and gas production, but only to reduce carbon emissions.

Alberta, which relies on energy royalties for its budget, has launched an advertising campaign opposing the cap, which it says will hobble the industry and cut job.

Danielle Smith, the province’s premier, said that meeting emissions cap would cause the province’s energy industry to cut production by 1 million barrels a day by 2030. Last year, the province produced 4.3 million barrels a day.

“This is not a responsible policy,” Smith said at a news conference.

Guilbeault said that Smith and her allies were ignoring the economic and environmental effects of climate change.

“They will continue doing stupid things and we will continue focusing on helping Canadians to create a robust economy, good jobs and working to protect the environment,” he said.

An alliance of the largest oil sands companies has proposed installing equipment to capture carbon dioxide and then send it through pipelines to store it in underground reservoirs.

The federal government said it would offer energy companies tens of billions of dollars in tax credits to subsidize those systems, though there is still skepticism about the technical and financial viability of large-scale carbon capture.

Kendall Dilling, the president of the alliance, called the emissions cap a “misguided proposal that will drive cuts in oil and gas production and have a significant, negative impact on Canada’s economy.”