COP27 | The expulsion of the oil industry from the flag of Canada demanded

The event featuring six Canadian oil companies scheduled for Friday at the Canada pavilion at COP27 must be canceled, along with all those involving the fossil fuel industry, claims an environmental coalition.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

“Civil society organizations are concerned about the space being given to oil, gas and petrochemical companies at Canada’s first-ever pavilion at a COP,” reads a letter sent Thursday to the Minister of the Environment and of Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault.

The missive, entitled “Expel the polluters from the Canadian pavilion”, is co-signed by some twenty organizations, including Équiterre, co-founded by Steven Guilbeault himself, the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) and the Syndicat canadienne of the public service in Quebec (CUPE).

“Industries committed to climate action are welcome at these events, and there are several at COP27,” write the signatories.

Oil and gas companies, like those who will take part in Friday’s panel at the Canada Pavilion, are, however, “the main obstacle to climate action, both at the COP and in Canada”, the letter accuses.

The carbon capture and storage technologies these companies are due to talk about on Friday “have a decades-long track record of failure and underperformance” and can never, even if they do work, be a solution for “the 80 to 90% of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted when the oil and gas they pump from the ground are burned, ”continues the text.

Minister stays the course

Minister Guilbeault again defended the event during a press briefing in Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday.

The presence of oil companies, grouped together within the New Paths Alliance, is justified in the name of the “plurality of paths”, essential in democracy, he replied.

“I think that in a democratic society, it is completely legitimate for the different voices to be heard, it is just as democratic for us to hear those of environmentalists who do not agree with the point of view expressed by the group that will speak [vendredi] “said the minister.

The Équiterre organization opposed on the social network Twitter that the fact that “the oil companies behind the climate disasters have room at COP27 [est] counter-productive and counter-intuitive.

The New Paths Alliance continues to participate in the event, saying it is at COP27 “to constructively and collaboratively discuss real solutions to help fight climate change”, its president, Kendall Dilling, said in a statement. writing sent to The Press.

“We look forward to showing delegates around the world how we are working together and with governments on an action plan to be an important part of the solution,” he added, reiterating the industry’s commitment. of the oil sands to reduce its emissions by 22 million tonnes of GHGs per year by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.