CANADIAN LOBBYING THREATENS UK CLIMATE POLICY – Norman Baker targeted by protesters
PRESS RELEASE and PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Monday 20th June – For immediate release
Following Saturday’s International Stop the Tar Sands Day (1) demonstration, protesters today will deliver a petition (2) to the Department for Transport, challenging the UK’s opposition to including tar sands (3) in the Fuel Quality Directive (4).
An explicit reference to tar sands in EU legislation would ensure this highly polluting form of oil is banned from entering the European Union, a move to reduce carbon emissions which is widely supported by MEPs, the European Commission and most EU member states. Yet furious Canadian lobbying has sought to remove any mention of tar sands, watering down the legislation significantly. The UK is one of only two member states which has succumbed to this position (5).
Pete Barker, organiser of the London demonstration on Saturday which saw protesters gather at the Canadian High Commission, says, “Norman Baker has shown his green credentials in the past, but if he doesn’t support a European tar sands ban then he’s failing the so-called ‘greenest government ever’s biggest test so far.”
ENDS
Photo opportunity: 12.45pm Monday 20th June, Department for Transport, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR
Contact for interviews: Pete Barker, 0796 775 8641
Notes to Editors:
(1) International Stop the Tar Sands Day (see www.stoptarsands.eu) saw events in 30 countries around the world raising awareness of the most destructive project on Earth. In London protesters gathered outside the Canadian High Commission, laying flowers to commemorate the death and destruction caused by the tar sands industry.
(2) The spoof ‘brown envelope’, stuffed with fake cash and covered by signatures, declares ‘YOU’VE TAKEN CANADA’S BROWN ENVELOPE, NOW TAKE OURS!’
(3) Tar Sands fuels emit on average 23% more carbon than conventional oil, http://www.r-e-a.net/policy/european-policy/Euro-legislation/renewable-energy-directive For more information on tar sands and their environmental and social impacts see www.no-tar-sands.org
(4) The EU’s landmark Fuel Quality Directive aims to reduce the carbon emissions of the transport sector by 6% by 2020 and in its amended version would identify tar sands oil as above the acceptable CO2 cap for fuel imports.
(5) Under the direction of Norman Baker, the UK government, in addition to the Netherlands, intends to block the amended Fuel Quality Directive: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/pollution-fears-as-uk-blocks-european-ban-on-fuel-from-tar-sands-2291598.html
Canadian government and UK Transport Department targeted on global day of action against tar sands
Press Release
Friday June, 17th 2011 – For immediate release
Protesters in London will target Canada’s High Commission on Saturday June 18th to mark the second annual International Stop the Tar Sands Day [1]. Flowers will be delivered to the commission commemorating the communities, wildlife, and landscapes that have been damaged by tar sands extraction. Using vast amounts of fresh water and natural gas, and leaving behind lakes of toxic pollution, the Canadian tar sands are the world’s largest and dirtiest industrial project. Canada’s tar sands extraction is exacerbating global warming through deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, causing rare forms of cancer amongst First Nations communities, destroying vast tracts of forest habitat and threatening wildlife to extinction [2].
The June 18th call to global action aims to raise international awareness that oil made from Canada’s tar sands is not a viable alternative to conventional petroleum [3]. Pete Barker, UK Organiser for International Stop the Tar Sands Day, says: “There are international protests today to expose how Canada is using aggressive lobbying techniques to push tar sands onto foreign markets, blocking international climate policies [4], violating First Nations rights and risking runaway climate change by ignoring the warnings of climate scientists. In an age of declining conventional oil reserves and rising greenhouse gas levels, we cannot afford to continue to extract tar sands if we are to respond to climate change. We have to show the Canadian government that the global community believes that exploiting the tar sands is unacceptable.”
Tar sands oil has not so far entered Europe but many major European oil companies like Norway’s Statoil, Netherlands/UK-based Shell, and France’s Total Oil are currently operating in the tar sands, with BP recently investing in its first project to begin operations in 2014. Jess Worth, from the UK Tar Sands Network, says: “The EU is not guaranteed to remain free from tar sands oil unless it can actively seek to ban the substance. The Fuel Quality Directive [5] should have such an effect, by discriminating different types of fuel based on their carbon intensity.
However, the UK government has caved into Canadian lobbying, and is campaigning to water down the landmark legislation by removing the reference to tar sands. Failure to address tar sands emissions undermines the whole objective of this legislation to reduce Europe’s transport emissions”
Protesters will sign a giant petition addressed to Norman Baker, Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department for Transport who is responsible for the UK government’s intention to oppose the inclusion of tar sands fuels in the Fuel Quality Directive [6]. The petition will be hand-delivered by activists to the Department for Transport on Monday 20th June.
The International Stop the Tar Sands protest will also include a friendly game of ‘Oily World Volleyball’, illustrating that Canada is gambling with the future of the planet by devastating entire ecosystems for the pursuit of unconventional oil [7]. Emily Coats, from the UK Tar Sands Network, says: “As well as stopping further development in Canada, we must act now to prevent oil companies from exploiting other tar sands sources around the world. Currently, French oil giant Total, which has been running trial projects in tar sands fields in Madagascar, is currently considering beginning large scale exploitation of tar sands, and we urge them to abandon the project [8].”
ENDS
Photo opportunity: Canadian High Commission, Grosvenor Square – 12:15 pm
For interviews contact: Peter Barker, International Stop the Tar Sands Day Organizer – +447967758641
Notes for editors:
[1] Actions will also be taking place in universities around the UK where activists will be getting ‘tarred and feathered’ http://peopleandplanet.org/tarsands/June18 Similar events are planned in Berlin, Lisbon, Copenhagen, The Hague and Brussels, along with 25 protests in the US and 12 in Canada www.stoptarsands.eu
[2] For more information on tar sands and its environmental and social impacts see no-tar-sands.org oilsandstruth.org
[3] Lush cosmetics and the Indigenous Environmental Network organized protests across Europe to coincide with the international protests. http://photogallery.thestar.com/1008989
[4] See Canada Spurns Kyoto in Favour of Tar Sands http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56048
[5] The Fuel Quality Directive is a piece of EU legislation that sets out to reduce European transport fuel emissions by 6% by 2020 by encouraging the use of lower carbon fuels. Tar sands fuels emit on average 23% more carbon than conventional oil. http://www.r-e-a.net/policy/european-policy/Euro-legislation/renewable-energy-directive
[6] See British Government is unlikely to support an EU push to include tar sands in its new fuel directive http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/pollution-fears-as-uk-blocks-european-ban-on-fuel-from-tar-sands-2291598.html
[7] See www.no-tar-sands.org/resources for Stop the Tar Sands Going Global briefing launched by UK Tar Sands Network
[8] The World Development Movement campaigning against French corporationTotal to stop tar sands developments in Madagascar. See http://www.wdm.org.uk/action/stop-tar-sands-madagascar-total
Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
4 May 2011 (Edmonton) — Little Buffalo community members, including school children, continue to experience nausea, burning eyes and headaches after one of the largest pipeline spills in Alberta history last Friday by Plains All American leaked nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into Lubicon traditional territory in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta.
Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School. The fact sheet indicates that 28,000 barrels of crude oil, or 4,500 cubic metres, has spread into nearby stands of “stagnant water.” The spill, April 29 at 7:30 a.m., occurred only 300 metres from local waterways. The ERCB said the spill has been contained, but community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog. The ERCB also said to the community that there is “no threat to public safety as a result of the leak.” Yet people are still getting sick, the local school has been shut down and children ordered to stay at home. An investigation into the incident is underway.
“It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air. The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs,” said Brian Alexander, the principle of Little Buffalo School. “We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well”.
“The company and the ERCB have given us little information in the past five days. What we do know is that the health of our community is at stake,” said Chief Steve Nosky. “Our children cannot attend school until there is a resolution, The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with. The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected.”
The ERCB fact sheet states that air monitors are in place on site and have “detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines.” But this is little consolation for a community that is scared to breathe the air. Veronica Okemow has six children, the youngest one attending the school, and she is very worried. “We are deeply concerned about the health effects on the community,” Okemow said. “It is a scary thing when your children are feeling sick from the air. People are scared to breathe in the fumes.”
Pipeline Companies are constantly trying to ensure the public that these massive pipelines crossing North America are safe.
“With TransCanada and Enbridge pipeline corporations vying to build massive pipelines to the Pacific and Gulf Coasts, First Nation and American Indian Tribes near the path of these pipelines currently have tribal resolutions opposing the construction of these pipelines. They foresee that these proposed pipelines would endanger their water, air and lands, for future generations. Alberta’s big oil companies are putting our communities at risk for a short ranged economic gain”, Says Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and also a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner said:
“The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible.”
See CBC News article on pipeline-leak here.
Edmonton Journal Health concerns after Northern Alberta spill
APTN Oil spill threatens Lubicon
Pipeline spill could take years to clean up
For more information, please contact:
Steve Nosky, Chief of the Lubicon Cree, (780) 649-4466
Brian Alexander, Principle of Little Buffalo School, (780) 629 -2210 (h) (403) 397-9779 (c)
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of the Lubicon Cree and Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner,(780) 504-5567
Jessica Wilson, Greenpeace communications, (778) 228-5404
_________________________________________________________________________________
Please help demand that the ERCB and Plains Midstream meet Lubicon needs now. The Lubicon require the following:
- ERCB to attend Lubicon community meetings to effectively answer community members’ questions
- Independent environmental assessment reporting to community
- Lubicon fly-over of the spill-affected area to survey immediate damage to traditional territory
- Health response team stationed in Lubicon community immediately to respond to those who continue to get sick from the air, especially children
- Note that other First Nations and communities in the area have not even been informed of the spill
Contact ERCB as soon as possible via phone, fax, or email:
Dan McFadyen, Chairman
Energy Resources Conservation Board, Suite 1000, 250 – 5 Street SW, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 0R4
Chairman’s phone: (403) 297-2215
FAX: (403) 297-7336
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Also direct pressure to Alberta Premier:
Office of the Premier, Room 307, Legislature Building, 10800 – 97th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 2B7
Fax: (780) 427 1349
BP under fire at AGM for taking unacceptable risks.
PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8.4.2011
Interview opportunity with community representatives from Alberta Tar Sands and Gulf of Mexico coast – see below for details.
Residents from opposite ends of North America are travelling to London for a showdown with BP. Representatives of First Nation communities affected by the massive Tar Sands project in northern Canada are working in partnership with fishermen and women whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf Coast. They will be joined inside the AGM on Thursday 14 April by UK campaigners and angry shareholders, many of whom are planning on voting against the board.[1]
This unprecedented coalition has come together following a year in which BP has been responsible for the largest marine oil spill in history.[2] Despite this, a few months later BP announced that it was heading into an equally if not more risky “unconventional oil” venture: its first Tar Sands extraction project.
Representatives of affected communities, campaigners and shareholders are therefore joining forces to deliver a simple message to BP at its London AGM next Thursday: stay away from unconventional oil, it’s just too risky. There will be a protest outside and around 30 people will enter the AGM to ask questions, deliver the message “No Tar Sands” in a very visual way, and present BP with the not-so-prestigious “International ethecon Black Planet Award” for environmental destruction. [3]
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast who was recently arrested for protesting against BP and is facing a jail sentence for up to 800 days, will present the ethecon Black Planet award to BP in person, along with the Chairman of ethecon.[4] Diane will be joined by several other representatives from the Gulf Coast region. [5] She says:
“I am coming to the AGM to call BP to account for its actions in the Gulf – for the oil spill, the lies, the cover-ups, the skimping on safety, the deaths, the non-existent documents, the ‘swinging door’ with regulators. The massive nature of the oil catastrophe means it can’t be covered up, even by BP. It’s everywhere, from 5,000 feet down to miles upon miles across and then spread in the ocean’s currents. I am coming to articulate the anger of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper.”
BP’s decision to enter into its first Tar Sands extraction project [6] will also be criticised by a group of Indigenous activists brought over by the Indigenous Environmental Network. Melina Laboucan-Massimo from the Lubicon Cree First Nation will speak from direct experience about what this kind of ‘in situ’ Tar Sands extraction really involves [7]:
“BP is touting its ‘in situ’ extraction project as an environmentally responsible alternative to surface mining, but it is nothing of the sort. There are many ‘in situ’ mines on my First Nation’s territory. They pollute the water and the air, dramatically disrupt local ecosystems, and emit more greenhouse gas per barrel than surface mining. They are operating on our native peoples’ land without consent and it’s important that BP shareholders understand the risks of legal action from First Nations. BP must do the sensible thing and leave tar sands in the ground.”
The community representatives will be joined by UK activists determined to hold this iconic British company to account for its dirty operations across the globe. Jess Worth from the UK Tar Sands Network said:
“Uncertainty in the Middle East and dwindling supplies of conventional oil elsewhere should be a signal to move into more sustainable forms of energy. Instead, BP is responding by charging head first into dangerous, expensive and highly polluting sources of unconventional and marginal oil, such as Tar Sands, deepwater drilling and the Arctic. Pollution from the Tar Sands is equivalent to a Gulf Coast oil spill every month. The Board has clearly lost the plot so we are going to the AGM to set them straight.”
The coalition[8] will gather together in advance of the AGM for a major public meeting, on Tuesday 12 April, 7pm at Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA. All journalists are welcome.
To arrange an interview with any of the attendees:
UK media call Jess Worth on +447967758641 or email [email protected]
North American media call Clayton Thomas-Muller, Indigenous Environmental Network,
+11 613 789 5653
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bp-faces-wave-of-protests-at-agm-2267169.html
1. BP shareholders are angry about a whole range of issues since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. See ‘BP to face tough crowd at meeting’, Guy Chazan, Wall Street Journal, April 6, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576244990369064286.html See also an in-depth analysis of BP’s Annual Report: http://www.cbisonline.com/file/BP%20Annual%20Report%20Assessment%204-4-2011.pdf
2. 11 workers were killed and the ocean and local ecosystems were polluted with 4 to 5 million barrels of oil from BP’s controversial deepwater drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico.
3. Members of the ethecon Foundation will also be attending to present the award. Together with the positive Blue Planet Award, the negative Black Planet Award is bestowed every year by ethecon – Foundation Ethics & Economics, a German-based international foundation. For more information on ethecon and its work on BP see http://www.ethecon.org/465, http://ethecon/download/Dossier_Black_Planet_Award_2010_English.pdf and http://www.ethecon.org/download/Open_letter_to_BP.pdf
4. Read a longer statement from Diane about the situation in the Gulf Coast and her arrests: http://www.ethecon.org/en/1246
5. Tracy Kuhns, a commercial shrimper from Louisiana and board member of the Association of Family Fishermen, and other fishermen and women are being brought over by the Gulf Coast Fund. Also attending will be Antonia Juhasz, prominent US author, activist and Director of the Energy Program at Global Exchange, who has just published ‘Black Tide: the devastating impact of the Gulf Oil Spill’ which tells the stories of communities and individuals whose lives have been destroyed by BP’s negligence.
6. In December 2010, BP announced it was releasing $2.5 billion to move forward with the Sunrise Project – a partnership with Canada’s Husky Energy. For more information see http://www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/british-petroleum-bp/
7. Melina Laboucan-Massimo worked on a report that has just been released by Greenpeace Canada about the dangers of in situ mining: ‘Deep Trouble’, http://www.greenpeace.org/canada//deeptrouble
8. For more information about the members of the coalition, see: Indigenous Environmental Network www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html, UK Tar Sands Network www.no-tar-sands.org, ethecon http://www.ethecon.de/en/793, Rising Tide http://risingtide.org.uk/, Climate Rush http://www.climaterush.co.uk/, Greenpeace UK http://greenpeace.co.uk/, PLATFORM http://platformlondon.org/, Gulf Coast Fund http://gulfcoastfund.org/, Global Exchange http://www.globalexchange.org, This is Ecocide http://www.thisisecocide.com/, Trees Have Rights Too http://www.treeshaverightstoo.com/
“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/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.
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