The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, admits to ignoring the repercussions of the Northvolt Six “gigafactory” project on the achievement of Quebec’s climate targets. “It’s the market that will determine it,” he said Wednesday.
“When the company is at full capacity, estimates speak of 2.5 to 3 megatons [de réduction des émissions de gaz à effets de serre], but not necessarily in Quebec. It’s in North America,” the CAQ representative told the parliamentary press.
He was reacting to the revelations of Duty according to which the Ministry of the Environment is not able to issue reports or data demonstrating that Northvolt will be beneficial for achieving Quebec’s objectives in the fight against climate change. In an email exchange, the ministry put the “contribution” of the project at 1.25 million tonnes per year, but did not provide any documents to support its hypothesis.
Called at the beginning of the month to say why Northvolt had the privilege of bypassing the evaluation process of the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE), Mr. Charette affirmed that the arrival of the Swedish promoter in Quebec “help[ait] to achieve our decarbonization objectives.
“It will help the decarbonization of the continent – in Quebec as well – but the percentage, the ratio, we have never embarked on that,” nuanced the elected official of François Legault’s government on Wednesday. He is also not able to say what part of the batteries produced by Northvolt in its Montérégie factory would be sold in Quebec.
“It is the market which will determine where the vehicles are sold,” said Mr. Charette on Wednesday. “But we know that we have, on the North American continent among, if not the ZEV rule [véhicules zéro émissions] the strictest. So, manufacturers will prefer to send their vehicles to Quebec to comply. »
The Quebec ZEV standard aims to encourage sales of electric automobiles by manufacturers. For them, each sale allows them to accumulate credits which then allow them to avoid paying a royalty or can be sold to the highest bidder.
“Wave a big green flag”
The co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois questions the minister’s comments on the decarbonization potential of Northvolt.
“The CAQ must stop waving a big green flag when it comes to talking about Northvolt and must have a transparent approach, where they tell us how they will have economic benefits, how they will reduce GHGs [gaz à effets de serre]how we will ensure that this project is good for Quebec,” he said during a press briefing at the Parliament Building on Wednesday morning.
The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, also does not see a “link” between Northvolt and the reduction of GHG emissions. “When we want to decarbonize, what we need to do is change the way each of our economic sectors operate. And it has nothing to do with the introduction of a new industry,” he said on Wednesday.
“We believe in it at Northvolt, but we must respect our environmental rules, then the processes must be respected,” added the interim leader of the Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay.
With Alexandre Robillard