Months after Newfoundland's Bay du Nord offshore oil project was approved by the federal government, environmental groups continue to campaign against the project. , is challenging the Norwegian courts and the company's offices.
Opponents of the project fear that the project's lead company, Equinor (in which oil giant BP has a minority stake), will be particularly sensitive to growing climate concerns about fossil fuel production. I hope Because it is a Norwegian state company and is responsible to the citizens of that country.
Equinor has not yet made a final investment decision to move forward, and environmental groups are focusing their efforts on its next milestone. Led by environmental law charity Ecojustice, they appeared in federal court for a review of the project's environmental approval.
"Our federal government says it understands climate science," said Ecojustice staff attorney Ian Milon. "Therefore, we need to understand that Canada cannot be a climate change leader and cannot approve such fossil fuel infrastructure projects."
Litigation downstream
Equinor and the federal government, which focus on emissions, say Bay du Nord's operations are less carbon-intensive, especially compared to other oil projects in Canada and abroad.
Even as the world decarbonises, the demand for oil continues, so it makes sense that it would come from projects like the Bay du Nord. they say The project has a requirement to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the first oil and gas project in Canada, and the government has announced a similarly severe climate change in future environmental approvals. Indicates that a condition is required.
However, these conditions focus on emissions from the operations of the Bay du Nord, which include emissions from the oil extracted and exported and then burned in power plants and vehicles. is not focused.
Ecojustice filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of climate advocacy groups Sierra Club Canada and Equiter. Its main argument is that the government did not consider the actual use emissions (also known as downstream emissions) of the oil produced at Bay du Nord.
Bay du Nord's actual operating emissions — approximately 177,000 to 309,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to an environmental assessment — account for a negligible portion of Canada's emissions. only part of it. annual emissions. However, environmental groups say 90% of a project's lifecycle emissions can be downstream emissions, which should be taken into account.
"If the Minister had looked at downstream emissions, it would be very difficult to conclude that the project is unlikely to cause significant adverse environmental impacts. I think it's very difficult," Milon said.
These groups state that the government has "artificially and illegally restricted assessments to ignore all downstream emissions and only consider emissions from the extraction facility itself."
In June, eight He Mi'kmaw communities in New Brunswick joined a lawsuit in which the government announced that the transportation of petroleum would reduce the number of animals they depend on for food and cultural reasons. He said he hadn't considered how it might threaten the species. Failing to meet its obligations to consult and respond to those indigenous peoples.
Groups take the fight to Stavanger
While government and Ecojustice lawyers exchange documents and evidence, environmental groups pressure Equinor elsewhere At Equinor's annual meeting in Stavanger, Norway, in May, the group protested, projecting slogans and videos onto the company's headquarters and local landmarks.
"I hope we can actually convince the people of Equinor and its major shareholders, the Norwegians, that this project is dangerous," Stavanger at the demonstration.
This is the strategy followed by environmental groups opposing his Equinor project on the other side of the world. In 2020, Equinor exited its offshore oil exploration project in the Great Australian Bight, a large open bay in rugged waters off Australia's southern coast.
The company said the project was not commercially competitive, but local groups seeking to protect remote areas of the ocean that are important habitats for a variety of sea animals. It also faced long-standing opposition from the
"Given Beit's situation, I couldn't have picked a worse place to suggest what they were trying to do," said a South Australian conservation group. Conservation director Peter Owen said. Campaigned against Equinor's project.
"But with the climate collapsing before our very eyes, they could not have chosen the worst time ever to push the expansion of the fossil fuel industry.
Lessons from Australia
There are many similarities between what happened at Bight and Bay du Nord. Owen's organization is part of the Great Australian Bight Alliance, which brings together local conservation groups and indigenous groups opposed to oil drilling in the region.
Australian regulators conditionally approved exploration from Equinor at Bight in December 2019. The Wilderness Society took the government to court to challenge the approval, but Equinor said he would withdraw by February 2020.
"Not only was the [project] responsible for canceling, but it also poses a direct risk to communities in the South. In Australia, we had a global responsibility to stop this carbon dioxide from leaking into the atmosphere," Owen said.
"This was something we could do under scrutiny within our jurisdiction as part of the global effort we all must undertake now to stop projects of this kind.
Alliance campaigners demonstrated across Australia and Norway, where they attended Equinor's annual meeting in Stavanger and spoke directly to the board and executives.
"We went to Norway looking for friends. We recognized that this fossil fuel company, Equinor, was Norwegian in nature," Owen said.
"The community realized that there was this amazing place on the other side of the world and they didn't want the communities that lived there to be endangered by oil drilling."
}In an emailed statement, Equinor did not mention the lawsuit against the Bay du Nord project, but the final investment decision was "following his It is expected within two to three years." Year. If the project goes ahead, oil production will start by the end of 2010 and will continue until 2058.
Bay du Nord can produce up to 200,000 and up to 1 billion barrels of oil per day. over its lifetime. This will result in the release of approximately 400 million tons of greenhouse gases.
"Canada is committed to getting her net to zero by 2050," Fitzgerald said. “We cannot continue to approve new oil and gas projects if we take that commitment seriously.”