Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was chosen to promote global sustainable development by the UN on Wednesday, the same day the green light was announced for a mega oil project off the coast of Newfoundland.
• Read also: Bay du Nord: The federal government should give the green light today
On Wednesday morning, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, announced the appointment of Mr. Trudeau as co-chair of the group of defenders of the Sustainable Development Goals, a group of personalities responsible for promoting sustainable development in the world. .
In a statement, Mr. Guterres argued that the Canadian prime minister has always been “a big supporter of climate action and nature protection”.
This announcement comes on the very day of the Trudeau government’s announcement that the Bay du Nord oil project will be able to go ahead. This oil rig, which will be developed near Newfoundland, should make it possible to extract between 300 million and 1 billion barrels of oil during its useful life, estimated at around 30 years.
The project is decried by environmental activists in Canada, who see it as incompatible with the federal government’s commitments, reiterated on Monday, to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% below 2005 levels.
“Moral madness”
Moreover, the UN Secretary General was very critical of the oil-producing countries, following the publication of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ), which concluded on Monday that humanity has only three years left to reverse the curve of GHG emissions.
“Climate activists are sometimes portrayed as dangerous radicals. But the real dangerous radicals are the countries that increase their production of fossil fuels,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic folly,” he added.
Prime Minister Trudeau, for his part, said in a statement that he intends to use his new title to “mobilize countries, governments, the private sector and other partners to jointly accelerate our progress and continue to raise our voices – and our ambitions – on the way to 2030”.
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com