Tell your MEP to Keep Europe out of the Tar Sands!
Few people realise that the UK government, in partnership with the EU, is in the midst of negotiating an ambitious trade deal that could boost Europe’s involvement in the world’s most destructive project, the Canadian Tar Sands.
The deal, if signed, could allow Tar Sands oil imports into Europe and give dramatic new powers to Europe’s multinational oil companies. It could trample over Indigenous rights in Canada and undermine a range of social and environmental legislation on both sides of the Atlantic.
The proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), if completed as planned, threatens to undermine stricter Tar Sands regulation in Canada and stronger climate policies in Europe. Canada is already threatening to pull out of the trade talks if the EU doesn’t water down a key piece of European climate legislation – the Fuel Quality Directive.
Just as controversial is CETA’s ‘investment chapter’ that would grant Canadian and European companies the right to sue governments when environmental policies interfere with their profits. You can find out more about CETA here.
Rather than give more power to European oil giants, the UK Tar Sands Network is working with Canadian civil society and Indigenous organisations to demand that the CETA negotiations should be halted immediately, until the following concerns have been addressed:
1. Ensure public scrutiny and consultation
2. Keep Tar Sands oil out of Europe
3. No new rights for corporations
4. Social and environmental laws come first
5. Get European companies out of the Tar Sands
6. Respect Indigenous rights
You can take action on this issue, write to your MEP by clicking on the link below:
http://www.call4.org/campaigns/keep-europe-out-of-the-tar-sands/
Is the EU about to ban Tar Sands?
Dear Tarsandsisters and Brothers,
We’ve (almost) got some amazing news… It’s looking increasingly like the EU might be on the verge of banning tar sands from Europe! But it’s not a done deal yet.
We know that Canada and Big Oil have been lobbying furiously behind the scenes to try and water down the key piece of EU climate legislation in question, known as the Fuel Quality Directive. But ever since we invaded the Department for Trade [link] to insist that current Canada-EU trade negotiations should not get in the way of EU climate policy, and then kicked up a stink in Brussels with our Indigenous, Canadian and European partners,[link] things have been moving pretty quickly.
Here’s the latest we’ve heard [link]. We’ve never got excited about an EU Directive before but the implications of this are so huge that we guess there’s a first time for everything. As soon as there are any further developments we’ll tweet and Facebook it, so if you’re not already our friend, liker or follower, please do join our virtual gang! No Tar Sands on Facebook and No Tar Sands Tweets .
In the meantime, if you haven’t already signed the Tarnished Earth petition to keep tar sands oil out of Europe you can do so here: www.tarnishedearth.co.uk/sayno We need to keep the pressure on until the decision is done and dusted.
While we’re watching and waiting, we’re not twiddling our thumbs. Ohhoho no. We’re getting revved up for the BP AGM, and another First Nations speaker tour in April – woohoo! Below are some dates for your diaries. Please email us at [email protected] to let us know which you would like to be involved in.
Love and momentous EU bans,
Jess, Sue and Emily
Cool stuff coming up:
19th March – Become a Shareholder Activist
The wonderful FairPensions are organising a training day for anyone wanting to attend a company AGM, come face to face with its top directors, and call them to account. Sessions include: ‘What does it mean to be an activist shareholder?’, ‘Why is this form of campaigning so effective?’, and a specific planning session for the BP AGM, run by us! To book a place please RSVP to [email protected] or 020 7403 7800.
13th-20th April – First Nations Speaker Tour
We are currently laying plans to bring representatives from two First Nations communities directly affected by the tar sands over to the UK for a week. We have got lots of plans up our sleeves, and are also looking for suggestions and offers as to where they could visit and what they could do while they’re here, so please let us know if you would like them to come to you and whether you can help organise an event.
There are two dates that are fixed so far:
14th April – BP AGM
Going into the tar sands. Spreading oil across the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling in the Arctic. Being best mates with Gaddafi. There are just so many reasons to be mad at BP. At the AGM, the BP board will finally come face to face with their many critics. If you want to be involved, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
20th April – Day of Action against Extraction
To mark the anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill, Rising Tide North America have called a day of action: April 20th 2011 – Rising Tide – Day of Action Against Extraction
Stick it in your diaries and start planning what you’re going to do! More info will follow.
“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
The Tar Sands Trade Deal You’ve Never Heard of…
Dear CETA-beaters,
It’s been a busy UK Tar Sands Network fortnight. We have invaded a government office, been to Brussels to bother some trade negotiators, and launched a flashy (for us) new website, to keep you up to date with everything going on in the world of Tar Sands campaigning!
- Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands! Part One: invading the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands! Part Two: taking our muscles to Brussels
- Vote BP!
- A shiny new No Tar Sands site!
Love and Belgian beer,
Sue, Jess and Emily.
1. Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands! Part One: invading the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Canadian government and the European Union are currently ploughing ahead with one of the most ambitious free trade deals ever. Known as CETA, it threatens to make European oil companies like BP and Shell even more powerful, and could open up the European market to Tar Sands oil for the first time. Boo! Yet no-one’s even heard of it…
So on Friday 14th January – just before the next round of trade talks kicked off in Brussels – the UK Tar Sands Network and our friends from London Rising Tide joined together as the “Big Society Trade Negotiators”, to advise the newly appointed Trade Minister (and former CEO of HSBC) to put the CETA negotiations on hold.
We invaded the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and demanded a meeting with Lord Green, holding a noisy teach-in about CETA in the lobby while we waited. He rather swiftly agreed to meet us at a later date. You can watch it all in glorious technicolour here.
2. Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands! Part Two: taking our muscles to Brussels
Then we hopped on a Eurostar and went to the belly of the beast – the trade negotiations themselves. In Brussels on Monday 17th January we joined with a variety of groups including the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Council of Canadians, Friends of the Earth Europe, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Canadian National Farmers Association outside the CETA talks to voice a wide range of concerns – about tar sands, the privatisation of public services, water, agriculture, corporate power and democracy.
Some of our allies then spent the whole of last week in Brussels and Strasbourg, meeting MEPs and trade negotiators and making sure they were fully aware of the problems with CETA. It seems to have worked. Follow the story and see the media coverage on the Council of Canadians website.
3. Vote BP!
BP are currently in the running for a Worst Corporation of the Year award. Considering what they’ve been up to lately – Deepwater Horizon, going into the Tar Sands, deciding to drill in the Arctic – we think they thoroughly deserve it. But they’re currently in second place! So please vote now and show them what you think of them. You Can Vote Here!
4. A shiny new No Tar Sands site!
We have a new website www.no-tar-sands.org that we are really happy to have up! Check in regularly for campaign updates and stay tuned for the amazing short films, from our recent trip to the Tar Sands, that will keep popping up from our friends at You and I Films.
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!
-30-
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.
Keep Europe out of the Tar Sands!
On January 14th 2011 a group of protesters invaded the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and demanded a meeting with Stephen Green, the new Minister for Trade. Calling themselves the “Big Society Trade Negotiators”, they were concerned that trade negotiations between the EU and Canada, due to start in Brussels the following Monday, would dramatically boost Europe’s involvement in the Canadian Tar Sands -the most destructive project on earth. They occupied the lobby and conducted a noisy teach-in about trade and the Tar Sands. They only left after the Minister offered them a meeting at a later date.
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) that could open up the European market to imports of carbon-intensive Tar Sands oil for the first time [1]. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the talks is the plan to allow multinational companies like BP and Shell to sue national governments over social and environmental regulations [2]. This is happening despite the increasingly urgent need for governments to crack down on the destructive and dangerous activities of such companies.
British shareholders, NGOs 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 [3]. 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 [4]. The proposed trade deal would increase Europe’s involvement in the project and significantly expand the market for this dirty oil.
There will be another protest in Brussels on Monday 17th January outside the negotiations themselves, involving UK, European and Canadian groups, and Indigenous activists [5].
Jess Worth from the UK Tar Sands Network said:
“Stephen Green has been parachuted in by the coalition government as Trade Minister. Completely unelected, this former Chair of HSBC was rapidly handed a seat in the Lords and then began his new job on the 1st of January. Given that HSBC is the world’s 13th largest investor in the Tar Sands, we are concerned that he will put the interests of oil companies and the Tar Sands industry ahead of environmental and social concerns in these, his first major trade negotiations. So the Big Society Trade Negotiators have come to help him make the right decisions.”
Emily Coats, also from the UK Tar Sands Network, added “The CETA trade negotiations between Canada and the EU are in full swing, yet most citizens have never heard of them. Climate scientists have warned that further Tar Sands extraction could lock us into disastrous and unstoppable climate change, but Europe is sleepwalking into major involvement with the project. We’re calling for the talks to be put on hold until there can be proper public scrutiny, and the many social, environmental and Indigenous rights problems can be addressed”.
FULL BRIEFING AVAILABLE HERE Stop Tar Sands Trade Talks!
ENDS
Notes for editors
[1] The CETA negotiations are about halfway through and due to be completed towards the end of 2011. The next round of talks will take place in Brussels next week.
[2] 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, available at http://www.no-tar-sands.org/?page_id=58
[3] 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: http://www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html
UK Tar Sands Network: http://www.no-tar-sands.org/
FairPensions: http://www.fairpensions.org.uk/tarsands/news
Platform: http://blog.platformlondon.org/category/tags/tar-sands
Camp for Climate Action: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk
[4] For more information on the destructive nature of the Tar Sands, please see:
Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html
Dirty Oil Sands: http://dirtyoilsands.org/
UK Tar Sands Network: http://www.no-tar-sands.org/
[5] For more information on the upcoming action contact Suzanne Dhaliwal, UK Tar Sands Network, on [email protected] or +44 7772694327