Tag: Fossil

A moment of truth for the oil and gas industry

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published a major report, The Oil and Gas Industry in Net-Zero Transition, which states that the sector must slash its GHG emissions by 60% by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

The IEA is bringing “5 pillars for action” to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai for “getting the world on track by 2030 for meeting climate goals.” Notably the five priorities do not include ramping up nuclear energy:

  1. Triple global renewable capacity
  2. Double the rate of energy efficiency improvements
  3. Oil and gas companies commit to advancing clean energy transitions and slashing emissions from their operations, including cutting methane by 75%
  4. Establish large-scale financing mechanisms to support clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies
  5. Adopt measures to ensure an orderly decline in the use of fossil fuels

The IEA statement with links to the full report is HERE.

June 28: Emergency day of action rally in Moncton

Note: On June 29, The NB Media Co-op published a story and video about this event, HERE.

The Climate Justice Coalition (Moncton) and Extinction Rebellion NB are collaborating with 350.org to organize a Moncton rally for the national day of emergency action:

Wednesday, June 28, 12:00 PM
Outside the office of MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor
272 St-George Street
Moncton, New Brunswick

Please join the rally to to demand that the federal government stop fueling climate chaos!

In recent weeks, major wildfires swept through nearly every Canadian province and territory. These fires have scorched a record-breaking area of land — over 5 million hectares. And it’s only June. This month global surface air temperatures rose to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. To meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of maintaining livable conditions, increases in global surface air temperature to the 1.5 C level will need to be limited to a brief period.

Unfortunately, we are entering an El Niño period, which is expected to warm 2024 to a higher level than 2023. Furthermore, the El Niño phase could last years.

However, if dramatic emission reductions start immediately the world can keep within 1.5 degrees. But instead, the government has just handed over another 3 billion in tax-payer money to fossil fuels knowing that investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is now considered “moral and economic madness” by scientists and experts the world over. In Trudeau’s own words, “Canada is burning” but his government is still failing to do even the bare minimum when it comes to climate action.

Communities across Canada are rising up to demand an immediate end to fossil fuel subsidies and a just transition to 100% renewable energy. Please join us to demand:

1. Stop the fossil fuel industry: no more subsidies, no new projects, and no more industry influence over our politics.
2. Enact a Just Transition: urgently shift us to 100% renewables while
generating millions of unionized jobs, following Indigenous leadership, and aligning with climate science.

As we face unprecedented impacts from climate change, it’s up to us to hold politicians responsible and force them to change course.

On June 28th, while catastrophic fires rage and smoke blankets much of the continent, Moncton will bring the heat to MP Petitpas Taylor to demand that the Federal Government stops fueling climate chaos. Join us at MP Petitpas Taylor’s office to demand action to end fossil fuel subsidies and implement a just transition. Together, we can bring the intensity of the climate crisis to the government’s doorstep. Bring face masks, signs, and friends as we push our representatives to muster up the courage to combat the climate crisis.

CRED joins call to stop trying to bring fracking to New Brunswick

CRED-NB is one of 47 groups that sent a solidarity statement to every MLA in New Brunswick, calling for the government to immediately halt its drive to bring a shale gas industry to the province.

The statement was issued by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and two CRED core coalition members – the Sierra Club Atlantic Region, and the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA).

In the statement, Gretchen Fitzgerald, National Programs Director of Sierra Club Canada, emphasized that, “trying to persuade First Nations to allow fracking by simply offering them highly speculative economic deals, while withholding other funds, appears to be more akin to bribery than to consultations that are mandated by law to be free, prior and informed.” Read the full statement HERE.

No to shale gas development

Any suggestion to now begin a shale gas industry (designed to last for decades) directly contradicts the data, and constitutes an intellectual, not to mention moral, failure. Read the latest editorial by Jim Emberger from CRED-NB core member the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA). Jim writes: “Fracking pollutes both ground and drinking water. It produces copious air pollution. Ever-longer wells use huge and growing amounts of freshwater, and produce correspondingly more toxic wastewater, for which no safe, affordable method of disposal exists. It causes earthquakes.” Read the editorial HERE.

No business case for LNG export terminal in New Brunswick

There is no business case for developing an LNG export terminal in the province, according to a study released by Repsol SA, owner of an LNG import terminal on the Bay of Fundy near of Saint John. CRED-NB core member the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) recalled the unrealistic idea proposed by the New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs that fracked gas from the province would supply the proposed export facility. Read the NBASGA media release HERE.

Court grants public interest standing to environmental groups in case related to Goldboro LNG

We’re celebrating with CRED-NB core member, New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) after a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling marked a major victory for access to environmental justice in Nova Scotia.

From the media release, here’s a quote from NBASGA’s Jim Emberger: “It would seem that issues of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and concerns about toxic mining pollution would, by definition, be ‘serious’, and that the public would naturally be entitled to reasons when governments decide to ignore those issues. It is too bad that it took a Court of Appeal to acknowledge these self-evident principles, but we are pleased that they did, and that we are now able to address the substance of these issues in court.”

Click HERE for the full story in the release.

‘My burning shame’: George Monbiot on wood-burning stoves

Prominent UK environmental writer George Monbiot writes in The Guardian this week about his shame and regret for converting his home to heat with wood-burning stoves. “Wood burners are incredibly bad for the environment – and flood our homes with toxins, too… Every time you open the stove door to refuel, your home is flooded with tiny particulates, accompanied by other toxins.” Read his article HERE.

In New Brunswick, the NB Lung Association recommends not burning wood for the same reason. Info on their website includes: “Burning wood is a major source of air pollution, and can have negative effects on the environment and human health. Smoke from wood combustion is the leading source of particulate emissions in New Brunswick. In fact, wood burning accounts for over 70% of total Particulate Matter 2.5 in the province, more than any industrial source.”

Decolonial Solidarity Moncton- Kill the Drill: Rally Nov. 5

Rallies will be held across Canada on Saturday Nov. 5 in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people and the defense of their land from a proposed gas pipeline. The Coastal Gaslink (CGL) pipeline would transport fracked natural gas across Wet’suwet’en territory to a proposed export terminal in Kitimat, BC.

The Climate Justice Coalition in the Moncton region is joining with other environmental and Indigenous allies and groups such as Decolonial Solidarity, LeadNow, Extinction Rebellion, the Suzuki Foundation, 350.org, and others on November 5th to oppose development of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. The rally will be focussed on the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC),  the largest funder of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. Details for the action in Moncton are below:

Decolonial Solidarity Moncton – We Are All One – Kill the Drill
Start: Saturday, November 05, 2022 11:15 AM
Royal Bank of Canada
719 Mountain Rd Moncton, NB E1C 8H9

Mi’gmaq and Wolastoqiyik / Walastakwiyik leaders remain opposed to reopening fracking exploration

“Earlier this week, the Government of New Brunswick delivered its speech from the throne to open a new session of the legislature. The speech did not respectfully reflect that it was delivered on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey peoples, rather it adopted Higgs’ government’s new revisionist land acknowledgement which fails to recognize our Nations as the proper title and rights holders over these lands, and ignores the solemn promises of our Peace and Friendship Treaties.”

Read the full statement by Indigenous leaders HERE.