(Quebec) Canada has 12 “carbon bombs” that could derail all efforts to limit climate change in the coming years.
Posted at 1:45 p.m.
According to a study by experts published in the journal Energy Policy, there are 12 hydrocarbon exploitation projects that would generate billions and billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG).
They are part of a list of 425 “carbon bombs”, projects located all over the world, but mostly in China.
Three-quarters of the projects are concentrated in ten countries, including Canada.
According to the researchers, if all the fuels are extracted from these projects and burned, the signatory countries of the Paris agreements of 2015 will not be able to meet the planned targets, which were to limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius the warming of the average temperature of the planet.
Among the 12 projects on Canada’s “carbon bomb” list is the Montney Play oil and gas project in British Columbia, with 13.7 gigatonnes – so billions of tonnes – of GHGs. In the whole ranking of the 425 “carbon bombs” in the world, it is one of the most polluting.
In second place in Canada is the Murray River coal mine (8.5 gigatonnes of GHG) and in third place is the Spirit River formation (3 gigatonnes of GHG).
In this lackluster list, Canada’s other “carbon bombs” are the Gething coal mine, the Horizon oil sands project, the Kearl and Duvernay projects, the Athabasca oil sands project, the Christina Lake project, the Liard Shale Gas Project, the Mildred Lake Project and the Fording River Coal Mine.