Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says canceling the oil sands industry event at the Canadian pavilion at COP27 would be tantamount to “censoring” companies that need to take part in discussions on how to solve the climate crisis, caused mainly by our dependence on fossil fuels.
“Canada is a democratic society and a plurality of voices is essential in a democracy. If we start censoring certain groups of companies, we stop everything. All industries in Canada emit greenhouse gases. We would ban agriculture, the transport sector, buildings, “he dropped, in response to the request of the Équiterre group, which is calling for the cancellation of the activities planned at the Canadian pavilion to give the floor to companies. of the fossil fuel sector.
No less than three events are on the schedule of activities planned for the pavilion that showcases Canada at the current UN climate conference, COP27, in Egypt. This Friday, six companies representing 95% of oil sands oil production will have the opportunity to tout their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They should even claim that they will achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2050, as wrote The duty Wednesday.
Environmental groups, including Équiterre, an organization co-founded by Guilbeault, have lambasted the Trudeau government’s decision to give a platform to the oil and gas sector. According to them, this amounts to endorsing a discourse of “greenwashing” on the part of companies.
However, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change disagrees. “I think that in a democratic society, it is completely legitimate for the different voices to be heard. It is just as democratic as we can hear that of environmentalists who do not agree with the point of view expressed by the group which will speak tomorrow, ”he argued, with reference to the event being held on Friday called “Collaborating to Find Solutions for the Oil Sands”.
Climate truck
Canada’s oil and gas industry is the heavyweight on the country’s climate toll. This sector produced the equivalent of 179 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG), or 27% of Canada’s balance sheet, according to the most recent data available from the federal government, namely those for 2020.
The oil sands industry alone produced over 80 million tonnes of GHGs. Between 1990 and 2020, emissions from this industry have increased by 437%. “More than half of the increase in emissions from oil sands operations is due to increased production,” the federal government said.
GHG emissions from the use of oil, natural gas and coal exported from Canada totaled more than four billion tonnes between 2016 and 2020, according to an estimate by the federal Department of the Environment. The weight of these emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels is such that it has exceeded, each year, the entire Canadian national GHG balance. These emissions are not taken into account in the federal data.