A coalition of environmental groups is calling on Ottawa to reject any proposal to build liquefied natural gas export facilities on Canada’s east coast, saying such projects will produce “climate-wrecking emissions.”
The coalition, which includes the Sierra Club Canada Foundation and the Canadian Climate Action Network, issued a statement Thursday that also points to the financial risks associated with multi-billion dollar companies that could take several years to get off the ground.
“On the world stage, Canadian politicians make passionate speeches about climate action, but their words will be revealed as empty promises if the federal government approves new fossil gas infrastructure on the East Coast,” Kelsey Lane, climate policy coordinator at Halifax. based at the Ecological Action Center, she said in the statement.
On Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told a chamber of commerce audience in Montreal that Germany is looking to invest in LNG projects in Canada.
Calgary-based Pieridae Energy has been promoting the construction of a multibillion-dollar LNG export terminal in Goldboro, NS, since 2011, but put the project on hold last summer due to “cost pressures and time constraints” related to the COVID-19 pandemic. . The company, which could not be reached for comment, had planned to source natural gas from western Canada through a pipeline and then ship it by tanker truck to European customers.
However, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, demand for natural gas has grown amid concerns that the Russians will cut off its supply to Europe, and Germany in particular.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to visit Canada later this month, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement in June. Published reports have suggested that Scholz is interested in getting more natural gas from Canada.
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Earlier this year, Pieridae CEO Alfred Sorensen issued a statement saying the invasion of Ukraine had prompted countries to seek secure supplies of natural gas.
“Pieridae’s proposed net-zero LNG export project off the East Coast continues to make sense, and discussions with a broad list of interested parties are ongoing,” he said on May 12. “Many want to see Canada provide leadership in a meaningful way to support a long-term solution by supplying Canadian natural gas overseas in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.”
Gretchen Fitzgerald, director of national programs for the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, said the federal government is using the war in Ukraine to “deceive” the public into thinking LNG projects are a necessary evil.
Environmental groups protest proposals to build #LNG terminals on Canada’s east coast
“LNG export plants will ruin our chances of meeting emissions targets,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “And all of this for projects that have no hope of coming online any faster than truly clean alternatives like wind, solar and energy-efficient power.”
Meanwhile, dormant plans for other LNG terminals in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have also seen renewed interest of late.
On June 29, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said a liquefied natural gas facility in Saint John, NB could be modified to reverse its flow and help reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels from Russia. The plant currently imports liquefied natural gas from the United States, but could be upgraded to export gas in about three years, he said.
Higgs said that the owner of the Saint John plant, the Spanish firm Repsol, has already spoken with the federal government about transforming the facility into an export terminal.
But that would be a mistake, said Louise Comeau, climate change director for the New Brunswick Conservation Council.
“Canada has promised to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector,” it said in the statement released on Thursday. “Any new methane gas infrastructure must comply with the cap. We cannot continue to allow the fossil gas industry to undermine climate policy in Canada.”
The coalition says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading scientific authority on the issue, has stated that carbon emissions must start to decline before 2025 if the planet is to avoid a worst-case scenario for climate change.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 4, 2022.