Greenpeace Canada will file a complaint with the Competition Bureau on Thursday against the “New Ways Alliance”, which brings together most of the oil sands producers. These companies publicly claim that the industry will be able to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2050, a speech that the environmental organization equates to greenwashing. His approach is supported by the former Minister of the Environment of Canada Catherine McKenna.
The New Ways Alliance includes Canadian Natural, Cenovus, ConocoPhillips, Imperial, Meg Energy and Suncor. These companies alone account for 95% of oil sands oil production, or nearly three million barrels per day.
In a context of criticism against the pollution generated by the operationoil station in Alberta, the members of New Ways Alliance have been conducting a public relations campaign for several months to highlight the industry’s efforts to align with the federal government’s objective of “carbon neutrality” at the horizon 2050. This objective is also considered essential by scientists to avoid the worst of the effects of the climate crisis.
“It’s clear, we are making great strides towards carbon neutrality”, says the title of the advertisement published in various media, including The duty, on social media and at sporting events. “Tar sands mining is a major source of CO emissions.2 in Canada. That’s why the six largest companies are taking multiple paths to carbon neutrality. We have formed an alliance to invest in technology and innovation, which is part of a solid plan,” the message also reads.
Companies are focusing on the development of a “network” of carbon capture, use and storage for industry. The development of this technology, which is still at an experimental stage, is a priority for the fossil fuel sector, which sees it as a way to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil production. According to the oil sands industry’s advertising, the expected reduction would be “10 million tonnes annually by 2030”.
Greenwashing
According to Greenpeace, this speech constitutes a “deceptive advertising campaign”. The group is therefore asking the Competition Bureau to investigate “the allegations” made within the framework of the New Ways Alliance campaign.
Environmentalists point out in particular that the industry’s carbon neutral plan does not take into account greenhouse gas emissions from the use of oil, which is mainly exported and burned elsewhere in the world.
An estimate by the Federal Ministry of the Environment has already indicated that between 2016 and 2020, emissions related to exported oil alone reached 3.22 billion tonnes, an annual average of almost 644 million tonnes. This number is equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 260 million cars.
Greenpeace therefore considers that the New Ways Alliance campaign is “a greenwashing tactic”, sums up their legal adviser, Priyanka Vittal. “Alliance members continue to increase their fossil fuel production and their carbon neutral plan doesn’t even account for all emissions. It’s also worth noting that despite this omission, their plan total still doesn’t equal zero. »
A “red line”
Greenpeace’s approach receives major support: the former federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna. “The New Paths Alliance, which brings together the major oil sands companies, floods the airwaves with its aspirations for carbon neutrality, but in reality its emissions are increasing, it invests only a fraction of its profits in clean solutions and lobbies against climate action. It’s time to draw a red line around greenwashing,” says the now chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Net Zero Emissions Commitments by Non-State Entities.
The current Trudeau government, for its part, invited New Paths Alliance to hold an event at the Canada pavilion at the most recent UN climate conference (COP27). The objective was to allow the industry to present the carbon capture and storage project supposed to enable it to achieve carbon neutrality. The Trudeau government has granted hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to assess the potential for “commercial viability” of this technology in Canada.
If the Competition Bureau finds the ad campaign contains false and misleading statements, the lawsuit filed Thursday proposes a range of penalties, including removing all mentions of “carbon neutrality” and issuing a retraction.