Le projet de giga-usine de batteries de Northvolt ne réduira pas les émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) du Québec, a affirmé mardi le ministre de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie Pierre Fitzgibbon, contredisant ainsi son homologue responsable de l’Environnement Benoit Charette, qui de son côté persiste et signe.
« Ça pas d’impact sur les GES du Québec », a déclaré le ministre Fitzgibbon lors de l’étude des crédits budgétaires de son ministère, en réponse à une question du député solidaire Haroun Bouazzi.
« Northvolt ne réduit pas les GES [au Québec] “, he added.
The Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks nevertheless maintained the opposite in March, affirming in an interview with The Press that the Northvolt project is essential to allow Quebec to achieve its GHG reduction target of 37.5% compared to 1990 levels by 2030.
“As Minister of the Environment, I look at the timetables that separate us from our 2030 objectives, and I do not have 18 or 24 months to lose,” he said, to justify the government’s decision not to subject the Northvolt project underwent an evaluation by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
“I am six years away from having to deliver extremely ambitious objectives,” he added.
Benoit Charette persists and signs
Minister Charette reiterated his assertion on Tuesday, during the study of his ministry’s appropriations, when he was questioned practically at the same time as his colleague Pierre Fitzgibbon.
The batteries produced by Northvolt will be intended for the North American market, and it is in Quebec that the most electric vehicles are sold, all things considered, so Northvolt’s batteries will contribute to Quebec’s balance sheet, Minister Charette responded to a question from solidarity MP Alejandra Zaga Mendez.
“I am not able to say to the nearest ton what this represents in terms of reduction of greenhouse gases,” he declared, “but it will benefit Quebec’s decarbonization efforts, that is not the case. no doubt. »
In March, Minister Charette argued that Northvolt’s battery production would enable GHG reductions of three million megatons on a global scale, “the equivalent of a million thermal cars” removed from circulation.
With the collaboration of Henri Ouellette-Vézina, The Press