As climate experts release a report sounding the alarm about impending climate disaster, The duty learned that the Trudeau government will provide an “update” on Friday regarding the Bay du Nord oil megaproject, in the marine environment. The cabinet of Minister Steven Guilbeault, who promised Monday to “remain a leader” in climate matters, did not wish to go further on the decision to authorize, or not, the extraction of 300 million barrels oil off the coast of Newfoundland.
Reacting on Monday to the publication of a scathing new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Federal Minister for the Environment underlined the urgency of action against the climate crisis. “This IPCC report exposes what the world already knows: all countries must take bold action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It shows that the price of a stock that is too low will be much too high. Canada is ready to remain a leader in these measures,” said Steven Guilbeault in a written statement.
“Inaction in mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects will impact food systems, trade and immigration, not just in Canada, but around the world,” he said. added.
Accelerated warming
The Minister recalled that Canada is warming up “at least twice as fast” as the rest of the planet, even “three times as fast” in the case of the Canadian Arctic. He also blamed warming to explain “extreme weather events”, such as “the floods that hit British Columbia and the wildfires that raged in Alberta in 2021”.
Ottawa announced last year the addition of $1.4 billion to Canada’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, in addition to working on the development of the first national strategy adaptation, “which will be launched in the fall.
The IPCC report published on Monday indeed insists on the significant delays taken throughout the world in terms of adaptation to the impacts of climate change. “Increasing weather and climate extremes have resulted in irreversible effects, as natural and human systems are pushed beyond their adaptive capacity,” the document reads.
Thus, adds the IPCC, “any delay in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in adapting to the impacts of global warming will cause us to miss the brief window of opportunity allowing us to ensure a viable future for all of us and which closes quickly”.
“The culprits are the biggest polluters in the world, who are setting fire to the only house we have,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres reacted on Monday, saying that “fossil fuels are suffocating energy. ‘humanity’.
Oil exploitation
In this context of climate emergency, would the authorization of the Bay du Nord oil project, of the Norwegian oil company Equinor, be consistent with Canada’s objectives? The office of Minister Steven Guilbeault did not wish to comment on the file, saying that it is still in “evaluation”.
However, his office told the Homework that an “update” will be published on March 4, that is, this Friday. He did not indicate whether this would be the final decision whether or not to authorize the mining project. This decision must be announced by Steven Guilbeault, who must publish the final report of the federal environmental assessment at the same time.
Equinor holds exploration licenses in an area 470 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland. It is in this area, where the seabed is more than 1,000 meters deep, that it wishes to drill up to 60 operating wells, while continuing exploratory drilling.
According to company estimates, more than 300 million barrels of oil could be exploited by 2058 (another more recent estimate puts it at 1 billion barrels), reads the preliminary report of the company. Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (EIAC). It assessed the Equinor project, which would pump its first barrels by 2028, under legislation passed by Stephen Harper’s government.
Earlier in February, Minister Guilbeault’s office told the Homework that the AEIC “considered the direct greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction and operation of the project” as part of its assessment. “In November 2020, Equinor announced a corporate commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this, Equinor is committed to reducing emissions from its oil and gas production, while investing also in renewable energies and new technologies”, it was specified in the same email.
In interview at Homework, in December, Minister Guilbeault affirmed that new oil and natural gas exploitation projects will have to comply with increasingly strict climate regulations. In particular, he cited the desire to cap and then reduce emissions from the fossil fuel industry as an example.
To hope to limit global warming to a safe threshold, we must immediately abandon any new project for the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels, concluded the International Energy Agency last year, pleading for an increase unprecedented investment in the development of renewable energies.