A friend sent me an email note two days ago, with the intro line “The NGO’s finally did it!” which caused a moment of terrorized confusion. I didn’t realize it would relate to this, but for the first time ever last November, the province of Alberta has instituted a potential cap on tar sands development. However, this is not the achievement my colleague was referencing. It was more a statement of alarm than laudatory glee.
“For traditional conservationists, it was a little like finding out that Amnesty International had opened its own prison wing in Guantanamo.” That’s how Naomi Klein described the Nature Conservancy’s decision to allow oil drilling on land it was conserving to protect an endangered bird in 1999.
It was quite a sight: The CEOs of Alberta’s oilsands projects stood with NDP Premier Rachel Notley to announce Alberta’s climate plan before the climate talks in Paris. The CEOs had the widest smiles.
No wonder. Alberta’s climate plan targets the 28 per cent of Alberta’s greenhouse gases from power generation and transportation (driving), and leaves the 46 per cent of the province’s emissions from the production of oil and gas almost scot-free.
A hard cap on oilsands emissions that became part of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s climate change plan was the product of secret negotiations between four top oilsands companies and four environmental organizations, the Financial Post has learned.
The companies agreed to the cap in exchange for the environmental groups backing down on opposition to oil export pipelines, but the deal left other players on the sidelines, and that has created a deep division in Canada’s oil and gas sector.
WASWANIPI, QC, Dec. 4, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - In a last-minute decision, the Environmental and Social Impact Review Committee (COMEX) has agreed to postpone the public hearing on the construction of forest access roads that would impact the Broadback Forest, one of the last remaining wilderness areas in Quebec's boreal forest.
The international praise shows no sign of abating. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech on Monday at the United Nations climate conference in Paris – declaring that “Canada is back” – was received with a standing ovation. Everywhere he went during a short appearance he was met by cheers and demands for selfies. A few days before, the New York Times touted his “swift about-face,” congratulating him for “reversing course” on climate change.
