“Stop sabotaging climate action!”

Tar Sands protest at the Canadian High Commission marks Minister’s visit

This morning a group of campaigners protested outside the Canadian High Commission in London, to mark the visit of Ron Liepert, Alberta’s Energy Minister. The minister is here to lobby on behalf of the Province of Alberta’s Tar Sands industry, and encourage Europe to get more involved in what has been dubbed the world’s most destructive project.

The protesters held banners saying “Stop the Tar Sands Trade Talks” and “Canadian Tar Sands: Global Climate Crime” outside the High Commission in Grosvenor Square, and handed out flyers. There was heavy security, and they were not allowed to meet the Minster himself, nor even hand in a letter for him, explaining their concerns.

Unbeknownst to most citizens, the EU and Canada are in the midst of negotiating an ambitious free trade deal (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA). The Albertan and Canadian governments are trying to use these talks to undermine EU climate policy. Specifically, they are pressuring the EU to water down a key piece of climate legislation (the Fuel Quality Directive, or FQD), calling it an “unfair trade barrier” [2]. The FQD is currently on course to set a precedent in recognising, and penalising, Tar Sands oil as dirty oil.

Liepert’s trip is clearly timed to influence vital decisions around CETA and the FQD that are being taken in Europe over the next few weeks. After two days in London, where he will meet, among others, the Canadian High Commissioner, the UK Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs, and many oil and gas industry representatives, he will travel to Brussels to lobby members of European Parliament, the chair of the Environment Committee and the Commissioner for Energy for the EU Parliament [3].

Today’s protest is just the latest expression of opposition to the Tar Sands in the UK.  In the past year, British shareholders, NGOs, politicians and campaigners have expressed increasing concern over the involvement of UK banks and oil companies in the highly polluting extraction of “dirty oil” from the Tar Sands [4]. Emitting three to five times as much CO2 as conventional oil drilling, the Tar Sands industry is destroying the livelihoods and health of local Indigenous communities and decimating ancient forests and wildlife across an area of Alberta larger than England [5].

Suzanne Dhaliwal from the UK Tar Sands Network said: “Ron Liepert has come to London on a mission to scupper the EU’s attempts to ban Tar Sands oil imports https://www.no-tar-sands.org/files/category/eu-legislation/page/into europe. this blatant meddling on behalf of big oil is unacceptable. europe must put effective climate action ahead of corporate profits, by standing firm on the fuel quality directive and putting the ceta negotiations on hold.”

Andrea Harden, Energy Campaigner for the Council of Canadians added: “No doubt Liepert will be extolling the virtues of the Tar Sands as so-called ‘ethical oil’. They are nothing of the kind. The watershed is showing signs of stress, massive toxic tailings ponds are leaking, people downstream are getting sick and the Tar Sands are Canada’s largest source of industrial carbon emissions. What’s ethical about that?”

Trade talks could wreck climate change measures, campaigners warn.

Alberta seeks to blunt EU [Climate] legistation

Notes

[1] The CETA negotiations are about halfway through and due to be completed towards the end of 2011. The latest round of talks took place in Brussels earlier this month, and were targeted by Tar Sands protests.  For a full explanation of the problems with CETA, please see “Keep Europe out of the Tar Sands!”, a briefing by Council of Canadians, Indigenous Environmental Network and UK Tar Sands Network.

[2] The EU has been negotiating a ‘Fuel Quality Directive’ (FQD), aimed at encouraging the use of low carbon energy products and discouraging the use of high-emission crude oil. In its original form the FQD would have prevented fuels with a high carbon content from being used in Europe – an effective ban on Tar Sands . But the initial draft has been significantly weakened following Canadian lobbying, and all reference to Tar Sands has been removed until after the CETA negotiations.

[3] Ron Liepert’s full itinerary can be seen here.

[4] The last 18 months have seen a growing number of organisations taking action against British banks and companies with links to the Tar Sands. Both BP and Shell have faced shareholder resolutions over their Tar Sands investments, as well as protests at their offices and petrol stations. The Royal Bank of Scotland has also come under fire for being the 7th largest global investor in the industry, using British taxpayers’ money, and were targeted by the Camp for Climate Action, who camped for a week in the grounds of their global headquarters in Edinburgh last summer. For more information see:

Indigenous Environmental Network
UK Tar Sands Network
FairPensions
PLATFORM
Camp for Climate Action

[5] For more information on the destructive nature of the Tar Sands, please see:

Indigenous Environmental Network’s Tar Sands campaign
Dirty Oil Sands
UK Tar Sands Network

Stop Tar Sands Trade Talks!

Press Release

17 January 2010

For Immediate Release

Trans-Atlantic Civil Society Action Targets Canada-Europe Bilateral Trade Talks

BRUSSELS, Belgium – European and Canadian civil society groups joined together today outside Canada-EU free trade talks to give a clear warning to the public and negotiators that increasing Europe’s involvement in the Canadian tar sands is unacceptable.

The diverse groups held a “Stop Tar Sands Trade Talks” banner, and placards with an oily Canadian flag dripping onto an EU flag, while also distributing information outside European Commission headquarters to draw attention to the sixth round of Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations, happening January 17 to 21 in Brussels.

“We are concerned that the CETA negotiations will give dramatic new powers to European oil companies like Shell, BP and Total, allowing them to legally challenge any attempts to regulate their activities in the tar sands for social or environmental reasons. In order to prevent dangerous climate change we need to be shutting the tar sands down, not helping our companies invest in them,” said Suzanne Dhaliwal, from UK Tar Sands Network, who held a protest about the trade talks last Friday at the office of Britain’s controversial new unelected Trade Minister Stephen Green, who is the former Chair of HSBC – the world’s 13th largest investor in the tar sands.

“Tar sands are the most climate hostile energy source in commercial production today,[1]” said Darek Urbaniak, Extractive Industries Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe. “While Europe is working to reduce fossil fuels emissions Canada is using these trade negotiations to undermine this process. It has already been lobbying to water down the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive to treat oil produced from tar sands like conventional sources. EU decision makers should ensure that CETA enhances European climate policy and not the development of Canadian tar sands.”

Canada’s tar sands are the second largest petroleum reserve in the world, and their production is having serious social and environmental consequences. Producing oil from tar sands emits on average 3 to 5 times more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than conventional oil production. It requires and contaminates massive amounts of water and is having direct impacts on the health and way of life of First Nations communities living downstream from operations.

“The economic benefits of CETA have been oversold and the environmental costs ignored by the Canadian and European governments. The trade deal on the table leaves little room for badly needed climate change policies. In fact it will undoubtedly increase greenhouse gas emissions from mining, energy and transportation. Without a major re-write, Europeans and Canadians must reject CETA,” says Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner with the Council of Canadians.

“The debate over the tar sands extraction needs to come down to the fundamental human rights of First Nations to exist and have a future with a safe, clean and healthy environment,” says Clayton Thomas-Muller , Tar Sands Campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “First Nations’ access to basic human necessities is supposedly protected by domestic and international law but CETA, by encouraging more extraction projects and giving that kind of investment strong new protections, threatens First Nations’ access to clean drinking water, land and sustenance.”

The CETA negotiations are currently in full swing, and due to be completed towards the end of 2011. Yet most European citizens have no idea the talks are taking place. A legal analysis [2] on the potential impact of CETA negotiations reveals that it could undermine climate policy in Europe and give dramatic new powers to Europe’s multinational oil companies. For example, the European Commission has asked Parliament for permission to negotiate an investor-to-state dispute process that would allow EU companies to sue the Canadian government in the event future regulations, water use limits or other environmental protections interfere with their profits. Likewise, Canadian companies will be able to take otherwise legitimate and legal EU decisions before non-transparent arbitration panels with the power to hand out fines. The Canadian government has said negotiating an investor-to-state dispute process is one of its most important objectives in CETA. The chill effect from this process is enough to discourage governments from pursuing effective climate and environmental policy.

The civil society groups are therefore calling for the talks to be put on hold until they can be subjected to full public scrutiny and the many social and environmental concerns adequately addressed.

FULL BRIEFING AVAILABLE HERE Stop Tar Sands Trade Talks!

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For more information, please contact:

Suzanne Dhaliwal, UK Tar Sands Network, Tel: +44 7772694327, [email protected]

Stuart Trew, trade campaigner, Council of Canadians Tel: +1-647-222-9782, [email protected]

Clayton Thomas-Muller, Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, Indigenous Environmental Network, Tel: 218 760 6632, [email protected]

Darek Urbaniak, Extractive Industries Campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe,

Tel: +32 495 460 258 (Belgian mobile), [email protected]

Notes:

[1] “Tar sands – Fuelling the climate crisis, undermining EU energy security and damaging development objectives,” a report from Friends of the Earth Europe, available here.

[2] “Potential Impacts of the Proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on the Pace and Character of Oil Sands Development”: A Legal opinion prepared by Steven Shrybman (Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP) for the Council of Canadians, and the Indigenous Environmental Network, available here.