Ottawa has decided. Two days after the publication of an IPCC report which advocates a substantial reduction in greenhouse gases by 2025, the federal government has finally given the green light to the controversial Bay du Nord oil project.
Posted at 5:07 p.m.
Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault confirmed the news in a press release issued after the stock markets closed. The Bay du Nord project plans to extract at least 300 million barrels of oil off the coast of Newfoundland starting in 2028.
“The Bay du Nord development project can proceed, subject to some of the most stringent environmental conditions ever imposed, including the historic requirement for an oil and gas project to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” the minister said late Wednesday.
Minister Guilbeault had also hinted that he would approve the drilling project on Monday, when the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released. The IPCC report “very clearly” states that there is a need to “cap and reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector”, but this is not incompatible with the approval of new extraction infrastructure, he said.
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic folly,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday as he commented on the IPCC report. “Some governments and business leaders say one thing and do another. To put it simply, they are lying,” added the UN boss.
The International Energy Agency recommends that the nations of the world no longer approve new oil and gas projects in order to limit global warming and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Before the Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Steven Guilbeault mentioned Wednesday that “despite the increase in production [pétrolière]we are going to tackle emissions [de GES]. Accompanied by his colleague Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, the Minister of the Environment testified about the plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions for the oil and gas sector.
“What the public must remember is that we approve a project 10 times less polluting than the oil sands,” explained to The Press Ryan Worms, Minister Guilbeault’s press attaché.
For the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the project represents 3.5 billion in royalties in a province where the oil industry accounts for 30% of the GDP.
Minister Guilbeault’s decision had been postponed twice in recent months. Members of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet opposed the approval of the Bay du Nord project, which nevertheless received significant support in Newfoundland.