Whatever Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault may say, it is impossible to reconcile his intentions in terms of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the senseless acceptance of the Bay du Nord oil project, offshore off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. If this was a test of credibility for the man who has just beaten the drums with his 2030 GHG Emissions Reduction Plan, he has just failed miserably, as has his government, which has not the courage of his convictions.
The political calendar has not done Mr. Guilbeault any favors, it is true. Barely a week ago, he tried to convince with his plan to phase out fossil fuels, hailed by critics as the start of something. This Monday, he received the conclusions of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which implored decision-makers to reduce “draconian” GHG emissions, turning their backs on fossil fuels. On Wednesday evening, against all moral and environmental logic, he authorized the project to extract at least 300 million barrels of oil 500 km from the coast of Newfoundland, in a rich marine environment, from 2028 and for 30 years. . This is real nonsense.
Within the Trudeau government, the detractors of the project did not make the weight against the partisans. And here is a former convinced Greenpeace activist reduced to recalling that even the IPCC conceded that despite a decrease in oil production, there would still be “a daily production of 36 million barrels of oil in 2030”. This argument is fallacious, because there is no justification for embarking on new extraction projects in the midst of a climate emergency. “Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic folly,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week, appealing for political common sense.
Mr. Guilbeault also argues that the Norwegian Equinor project is not the worst, because it provides for carbon neutrality by 2050, and that it will be subject to more than a hundred conditions. But there is no such thing as “cleaner” oil. Ottawa claims that Bay du Nord will emit fewer GHGs than similar projects elsewhere in the world, but this calculation does not include GHG emissions when the oil is burned, which are considerable. The Minister is also taking refuge behind the green light given last August by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, which ruled that this project was not “likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects”. However, the Agency clearly points out that moderate negative impacts are to be expected both in the field of GHG emissions and that of biodiversity — migratory birds, marine mammals and fish.
As for the argument that the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador would win with a project of this magnitude, it comes precisely to feed the discontent of those who hoped that political audacity would prevail this time. , given the urgency. It was a wonderful opportunity to rise. The fall is all the more brutal.