Category: Press Release

December 15, 2023

Media Advisory: Land Use Planning Lawyer Available to Comment Following Minotar Holdings Constitutional Challenge to the Restoration of Greenbelt Protection for its Lands
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – Phil Pothen, Environmental Defence’s Counsel and Land Development Manager, is available to provide insight following Minotar Holdings’ filing of an application for judicial review of the restoration of Greenbelt protection to its agricultural landholdings in Markham’s protected countryside.

Background Information:
- The agricultural lands which are the subject of the application were among the 15 parcels stripped of Greenbelt protection in late 2022, despite the Ontario government’s express promise never to remove land from the Greenbelt.
- Enshrining protection of current Greenbelt lands in statute, rather than allowing removals by regulation at the discretion of Cabinet, was necessary to restore the certainty of permanence which is vital to the Greenbelt’s functioning, and which was undermined by the Ontario government’s recent attack on the Greenbelt.
- Experts warned land speculators from the start that the removal of land from the Greenbelt was inappropriate and would soon need to be returned, and it was reckless for Minotar to disregard those warnings.
- Permitting Minotar to be compensated would create perverse incentives for real estate investors in future to use expenditures as a way to “lock in” inappropriate government giveaways.
When: Friday, December 15, 2023

Who: Phil Pothen – Counsel and Land Development Program Manager, Ontario Environment

Where: Toronto, Ontario and available remotely

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence
media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Media Advisory: Land Use Planning Lawyer Available to Comment Following Minotar Holdings Constitutional Challenge to the Restoration of Greenbelt Protection for its Lands appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 15, 2023

Statement on Automaker Lobbyists Slamming ZEV Sales Regulation Before It Has Been Released
Statement by Nate Wallace, Clean Transportation Program Manager

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People –Canada is poised to soon join the ranks of leading jurisdictions, such as the European Union, California, Quebec and British Columbia, in phasing out the sale of new gasoline cars at the pace required by global net-zero objectives. This would represent following through with Canada’s COP26 commitment of transitioning to 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.

The claims that Canada can meet its zero-emission vehicle adoption targets with only incentives and charging infrastructure are false and do not hold up to scrutiny. Environmental Defence’s most recent report proved that these policy tools alone will fail to meet ZEV adoption targets. The only way to ensure Canada stays on the path to net-zero emissions is by requiring automakers to bring clean cars to the Canadian market, rather than allowing us to fall behind jurisdictions with more ambitious climate policy.

The Canadian auto industry receives significant taxpayer subsidies to build electric vehicle battery plants. In exchange, Canadians expect they will act in good faith in the fight against climate change. Regulating zero-emission vehicle supply is the only way to ensure Canadians are the first to access the zero-emission vehicles we are paying to help build. Automakers can’t have their cake and eat it too, they must transition to making 100 per cent zero-emissions vehicles by 2035 in line with Canada’s global climate commitments.

Background info:
- This briefing note outlines Environmental Defence’s expectations for the final regulations expected by the end of 2023.
- Environmental Defence and Equiterre also published a report on “Modelling a Zero-Emission Vehicle Standard and Subsidies in Canada’s Light-Duty Vehicle Sector (2023-2035),” that found only a ZEV sales regulation is capable of achieving Canada’s ZEV sales targets.
- The report highlights that even with a significant buildout of ZEV charging infrastructure, implementing the auto lobby recommendations of simply tripling existing ZEV purchase incentives instead of introducing a ZEV sales regulation would fail to meet sales targets and result in only 65% ZEV market share by 2035.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on Automaker Lobbyists Slamming ZEV Sales Regulation Before It Has Been Released appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 14, 2023

Statement on Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson’s Refusal to Accept Accountability for Massive Toxic Tailings Leak
Statement by Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition Program Manager

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – At today’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI) hearings, Imperial Oil’s CEO, Brad Corson, refused to accept full responsibility for the tailings leak, underscoring the failure of oil companies to protect communities and the environment from their toxic waste.

While Corson attempts to downplay the tailings leak as a “communications” issue, in reality, this was an environmental disaster and a gross betrayal of the local Indigenous communities’ trust. As the highest-paid oil CEO in Canada, Corson’s apologies ring hollow as he continues to neglect human and environmental health in order to maximize profits. Evidence has shown that tailings ponds release toxic and potentially cancer-causing chemicals into the environment, and nearby communities experience record-high rates of rare cancers. Despite the clear negative health impacts, Corson continues to avoid responsibility for billions of litres of toxic waste stored in tailings ponds that were designed to leak.

The Imperial Oil disaster exemplifies the urgent need for oil companies to clean up the 1.4 trillion litres of toxic waste before further harm comes to Indigenous communities and the environment. It is imperative that oil companies bear responsibility for fixing the enormous problem they have created.

We applaud the members of the Environment Committee for carefully scrutinizing the data, reviewing evidence that demonstrates the harm and ongoing risk of Imperial’s tailings, and asking critical questions — many of which remain unanswered. We stand in solidarity with the impacted nations in calling on the federal government and the government of Alberta to put a stop to the destruction in the tar sands and hold oil companies accountable for cleaning up their toxic waste.

Background info:
- Today, Imperial Oil’s CEO Brad Corson was questioned by the Parliamentary Environment Committee for a second time about the tailings pond leak at their Kearl facility that resulted in 5.3 million litres of toxic tailings spilling into the environment.
- The company failed to inform nearby Indigenous Nations of ongoing tailings leakage for nine months, leaving them unaware of the risks of consuming water and game harvested in the area.
- During the hearings, Corson was questioned about water contamination, adverse health impacts to the nearby communities, what procedures and protections they had implemented since the spill, the known placement of their tailings ponds in a highly sensitive and permeable wetland area, and the fact that leakage was a feature of these types of tailings ponds.
- Members of Parliament refuted Mr. Corson’s assertion that waterways were not affected by the spill, referencing reports of water quality monitoring with elevated levels of arsenic, iron, sulphates, and aluminum.
- Brad Corson, was the highest-paid energy CEO in Canada in 2022 and has spent his entire career extracting and marketing oil and gas, working mostly for Imperial Oil and its parent company ExxonMobil.
- Since 2009, Imperial Oil has reported 10 significant incidents of spills, leaks, and uncontrolled flaring events of tailings, gas, contaminated wastewater, hydrogen sulphide gas, and other toxic chemicals.
- The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) was brought before the committee for questioning in November 2023, where they refused to admit any wrongdoing.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson’s Refusal to Accept Accountability for Massive Toxic Tailings Leak appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 14, 2023

Statement From Ashley Wallis, Associate Director: Preservation of the Beer Store’s Recycling and Reuse Program Should Prompt Complementary Deposit Return System for All Other Beverage Containers

Ontario’s blue bin system is failing to keep non-alcoholic beverage containers out of landfills and the environment

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – We are relieved to learn that The Beer Store’s successful reuse and recycling program will be preserved. The existing deposit return program keeps hundreds of millions of reusable glass beer bottles in circulation, and even more cans and plastic containers out of landfills and the environment.

The preservation of this successful program indicates that the province recognizes its value. It is only logical that it would also see the value of a complementary deposit program for non-alcoholic beverage containers. The current blue bin recycling system is failing: only 43 per cent of non-alcoholic beverage containers are collected and recycled in Ontario. Meanwhile, the Beer Store’s successful deposit-return program collects nearly 80 per cent of beer containers and packaging. There’s no good reason not to require this best-in-class approach for the estimated 3.5 billion pop, juice and other non-alcoholic beverage containers sold in Ontario every year.

It’s long past time to address the abysmal state of recycling in this province. We urge Premier Ford and his government to show leadership and require deposit return for all beverage containers.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Lauren Thomas, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement From Ashley Wallis, Associate Director: Preservation of the Beer Store’s Recycling and Reuse Program Should Prompt Complementary Deposit Return System for All Other Beverage Containers appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 13, 2023

Response to COP28 Final Outcome

Dubai, UAE – The final outcome from COP28, dubbed the UAE Consensus, was adopted this morning. The final text calls on countries to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade” and to “tripling renewable energy capacity globally and double the global average of annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.”

The COP28 outcome sends an important signal about the future of fossil fuels. After 30 years of international negotiations failing to mention the root cause of the climate crisis, the acknowledgement that we must phase out all fossil fuels in order to effectively tackle the climate crisis is both long overdue and extremely significant.

However, civil society came to Dubai with a unified ask: a fast, fair, full and funded phase out of all fossil fuels. The COP outcome doesn’t match the level of ambition demanded by the climate movement, by climate vulnerable countries or by science. Nor does it reflect the calls from over 127 countries who were also pushing for a fossil fuel phase-out. The Alliance of Small Islands States put it plainly: “It is not enough to reference the science and then fail to take the action that science would require us to take.”

Furthermore, the outcome of COP28 falls short on equity on two important fronts. Developed and developing countries cannot be expected to move at the same pace and scale when it comes to transitioning their economy off of fossil fuels. Wealthy countries like Canada and the United States, who have long benefitted from an oil and gas sector and are less reliant on the sector today, must move first and fastest on phasing out fossil fuels, with progress made this decade. Furthermore, developing countries have been clear on their needs: financial support to address mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. On both fronts, Canada and other Global North countries have failed the global community.

The influence that oil and gas industry representatives, present in record numbers, had on negotiations at COP28 is evident; this is a major conflict of interest. There are dangerous loopholes in this final text – including for carbon capture, hydrogen, petrochemicals and transition fuels – that risk undermining the important progress that has been made. These dangerous distractions only serve the short-term interests of oil and gas companies, they do not align with climate science. The UNFCCC must adopt a conflict of interest policy.

Quotes:

Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate

“For the first time ever, countries around the world have collectively agreed on the need to leave oil, gas and coal in the ground and massively accelerate the build out of renewable energy and energy savings – this decade. There can be no mistake: the era of fossil fuels is quickly coming to an end.

Wealthy countries like Canada and the United States – who have an overwhelming responsibility to phase out fossil fuels first and fastest – have failed the global community by refusing to provide the financial support needed from developing countries in order to transition their economies away from fossil fuels, adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and address the losses and damages being experienced. Rebuilding trust will require wealthy countries to start paying up so that no one is left behind.

Furthermore, the hypocrisy on display from Canada and other countries must end. Canada and just four other countries are responsible for over half of the planned expansion of oil and gas production. Allowing that expansion to go ahead is a death sentence for millions around the world.

The record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28 was a desperate attempt of a sunsetting industry to once again sabotage climate progress. Although they were not successful, their fingerprints are very clear. The outcome includes too many loopholes for dangerous distractions, like petrochemicals and carbon capture. These are not climate solutions, they are licenses to pollute and must be challenged.

The momentum behind a fair, fast, full and funded fossil fuel phase – which is being led by climate vulnerable nations, frontline and Indigenous leaders and the climate movement – is unstoppable. We will bring this momentum back to Canada, where political leaders are still failing to have the same honest conversations about the need to phase out fossil fuels.”

Aliénor Rougeot, Program Manager, Climate and Energy, Environmental Defence Canada

“Ensuring a just transition is non-negotiable if we are to phase out fossil fuels and build a clean economy at the pace and scale required to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. Countries must prioritize the well-being of workers and communities impacted by the transition, from those economically reliant on polluting sectors to those whose communities and homes are impacted by industrial projects.

That is why we welcome the creation of a Just Transition Work Program (JTWP) at COP28, which creates a dedicated space for countries to support one another in tackling the challenge. The program rightfully affirms the importance of human, Indigenous and labour rights in the transition, as well as the need for both unique domestic transition plans and international cooperation. Countries however failed to make this program a space for decision-making, instead choosing to set up another talk shop. This shortcoming will adversely impact the workers, Indigenous nations, local governments and communities who need tangible support, not more promises.”

Julie Segal, Senior Manager, Climate Finance, Environmental Defence Canada

“To deliver on the trajectory of action needed, wealthy countries like Canada need to fund a global transition off fossil fuels, support communities who are affected by climate-related loss and damages, and provide money for vulnerable countries to build their resilience through adaptation. While we have to reduce emissions by nearly 50 per cent during this decade to keep the planet livable, we are on track to reduce them by only 5 per cent. This COP started with a historic launch of a fund for climate-related loss and damages, but the sums remain too small. The current paradigm is simple: whether wealthy countries provide financing to vulnerable ones will make or break global climate action.”

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Response to COP28 Final Outcome appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 12, 2023

Environmental Groups Celebrate End of Hamilton Boundary Case

New law makes good on Ontario government promise to end attack that forced city to sprawl

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Ecojustice and Environmental Defence are celebrating the end of their case against the Ontario government for unilaterally imposing an expansion to Hamilton’s urban boundary.

Last week, the Ontario Legislature passed the Planning Statute Law Amendment Act (Bill 150), reversing the reckless and counterproductive changes to Hamilton settlement boundaries that were the subject of the litigation.

On November 4, 2022, the province announced it was changing Hamilton’s Official Plan by stripping out provisions designed to deliver desperately needed housing in existing neighbourhoods. Instead, the province forced a 2,200 hectare outward expansion of the city’s boundary into farmland and wild spaces.

This move caused palpable anger among city councillors, housing activists, planners, environmental advocates and residents about the provincial government’s imposition of further sprawl upon the City of Hamilton, which had decided to accommodate its future growth by densifying its existing neighbourhoods and settlement areas.

In January 2023, Environmental Defence, represented by Ecojustice, announced that it was seeking a judicial review of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s imposed changes to Hamilton’s Official Plan.

These forced changes formed part of a wider attempt by the Ontario government to divert the province’s scarce construction capacity — desperately needed for compact infill housing — into the inefficient “greenfield” sprawl championed by a small, wealthy and politically influential subset of the development industry. That suite of changes, which also included the removal of key parts of the Greenbelt, resulted in the resignation of two government ministers and several political staff, an official rebuke from the province’s Auditor General and Integrity and Privacy Commissioner and an ongoing criminal investigation by the RCMP.

While the Greenbelt removals were also reversed last week, other aspects, like the proposed Highway 413 scheme, the gutting of wetland protections and the proposed dismantling of land-efficiency rules altogether, have yet to be officially abandoned.

Freedom of Information requests filed by Ecojustice on behalf of Environmental Defence showed that it was partisan Minister’s Office staff — not civil service experts — who directed changes to municipal Official Plans in ways that favoured select rural landlords and sprawl developers.

In October 2023 — days before the government was forced to disclose documents to Ecojustice and Environmental Defence showing how developers were able to influence these decisions — the Ontario government announced that it was reversing its changes to the Official Plans of municipalities and forced expansion of urban boundaries across the province. Bill 150, which follows through on this announcement has now passed into law. In the weeks that followed, Hamilton City Council confirmed that it wanted to maintain its urban boundary.

In light of Ontario’s reversal, now enshrined in legislation, the case against Ontario is no longer required. Ecojustice, representing its client, Environmental Defence, is withdrawing the case.

Laura Bowman, Ecojustice lawyer, said:
“The proposed expansion of Hamilton’s urban area would have caused irreversible damage by allowing inefficient, costly, car-dependent sprawl in sensitive areas.

“There was never a realistic possibility that un-serviced development approvals, on the fringes of urban areas, could provide fast, affordable housing.”

“The Ontario government’s reversal, and the admission of Minister Calandra that the process was flawed, is a vindication of our client’s position that the forced expansion of Hamilton’s boundary was unreasonable.”

Phil Pothen, Land Use and Land Development Program Manager with Environmental Defence, said:
“The Legislature’s reversal of this government’s forced boundary expansion in Hamilton is a victory for the overwhelming majority of Hamilton residents, who united around a vision for the future that rejects NIMBYism and environmentally-destructive sprawl, and embraces the social and environmental benefits of density and change in existing neighborhoods.

“However, there’s still a long way for the government to go. Now that Ontarians, and Golden Horseshoe residents in particular, understand that more low-density sprawl means fewer and more expensive homes overall, the only viable path for this government is to reverse course on the rest of its approach to land use. That starts with cancelling the Highway 413 scheme, abandoning plans to repeal the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and overhauling development rules so as to focus construction on existing build up areas and the most land-efficient and low-cost housing types.”

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

ECOJUSTICE uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment. Its strategic, public interest lawsuits and advocacy lead to precedent-setting court decisions and law and policy that deliver lasting solutions to Canada’s most urgent environmental problems. As Canada’s largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice operates offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

Sean O’Shea, Ecojustice, soshea@ecojustice.ca

The post Environmental Groups Celebrate End of Hamilton Boundary Case appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 11, 2023

Statement on the IESO’s Proposed Clean Electricity Supply for Ontario

Statement by Keith Brooks, Programs Director

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – We are very happy to see the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) proposal to procure 5,000 megawatts (MW) of non-emitting renewable electricity in the coming years. Clean renewable electricity – such as wind and solar power – is the lowest cost source of new electricity supply. Clean electricity is absolutely integral to efforts to decarbonize the economy and fight climate change. And it is a competitive advantage for the province. It’s good to see Ontario working to bolster, rather than undermine, the province’s “Clean Energy Advantage.”

Environmental Defence is committed to engaging with the IESO, and with municipalities and Ontarians more broadly, to work to find suitable sites for these renewable power projects and ensure that they find support from municipal governments and neighbours alike. Clean power projects can find local support, but the process of community engagement and details on how the benefits are shared need to be carefully considered.

We call on Ontario to abandon the gas procurement currently underway. Ontario doesn’t need new gas-fired electricity, which will make the province’s electricity supply more polluting. These gas plants that the IESO is seeking to procure will come at great expense though they will be effectively shut down in 2035, just seven years after they are to come online, due to the forthcoming federal Clean Electricity Regulations. Ontario ratepayers will save billions of dollars if the IESO shelves this procurement now, before offering any more contracts. The IESO’s Resource Adequacy Update clearly shows that polluting gas-fired turbines are more expensive than clean wind power and ground mounted solar.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on the IESO’s Proposed Clean Electricity Supply for Ontario appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 11, 2023

Response to COP28 Draft Outcome

Statement by Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate

Dubai, UAE – The most important outcome from COP28 will be the final Global Stocktake (GST) text. The GST will set out the most important commitments and pledges made by governments during the negotiations, therefore sending an important political signal. The final text will also provide a blueprint on which countries develop their next round of targets. Earlier this evening, the COP Presidency released the latest version of the draft GST text.

Environmental Defence is extremely disappointed with the language in the GST text. The commitments have been significantly watered down from the previous version, on several fronts. Environmental Defence urges the Government of Canada to push for more ambitious action in the final text, expected to come out on December 12th.

“The draft text is unacceptable. We are calling on the Government of Canada to use their political muscle to push for what is truly needed: a fair, fast and funded phase out of all fossil fuels – without any dangerous loopholes. That outcome will only be achieved if Canada and other wealthy countries finally take responsibility for their oversized contributions to the climate crisis by providing financial support and assistance to developing countries, to ensure no one is left behind in the energy transition. The science does not compromise: we must leave oil, coal and gas in the ground.”

A Fossil Fuel Phaseout

The litmus test for COP28 is whether it will deliver a full, fast, fair and fully funded fossil fuel phase out. Not only is this what the science dictates as necessary to ensure global heating does not exceed 1.5 degrees, but the momentum behind a fossil fuel phaseout has never been greater. In fact over 100 countries have been calling for it over the past two weeks, including the Government of Canada.

Whereas a previous version of the GST text included language on the need to phase out fossils in alignment with science, the latest draft text only includes a call to reduce the consumption and production of fossil fuels. (Reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050.)

The final GST text must include a commitment to phasing out all fossil fuels, with wealthy countries required to demonstrate progress this decade.

Dangerous Distractions

The draft GST text contains too many references to dangerous distractions, including carbon capture and hydrogen. Carbon capture and hydrogen are being promoted by oil and gas executives in order to prolong our dependence on fossil fuels. But they are ineffective, unnecessary and risky. Abatement is not a solution, it’s a license to pollute. All references to false solutions, including carbon capture and hydrogen, must be removed.

Ensuring Equity

Developed and developing countries cannot be expected to move at the same pace and scale when it comes to transitioning their economy off of fossil fuels. Wealthy countries like Canada, who have long benefitted from an oil and gas sector and are less reliant on the sector today, must lead the energy transition. This includes quickly phasing out their own fossil fuel production first, as well as providing the financial and technical support that is needed by developing countries to transition their own economies.

Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Canada and other G20 countries first committed to ending inefficient fossil fuel subsidies back in 2009. Since then, the word inefficient, which has no agreed upon definition, has been used to justify ongoing and even new fossil fuel subsidies, as governments deem these ‘efficient’. It is time to drop the weasel word. Countries must agree to end all fossil fuel subsidies, without delay.

Ensuring a Just Transition

Countries came to COP28 with the mission to create a work program on just transition, to tackle the social and economic impacts of climate action. Yet the latest draft of the GST text only has a placeholder for future just transition language. Parties must rapidly agree to a just transition work programme that is inclusive of human, Indigenous and labour rights, and delivers actionable decisions such as input to the next round of domestic climate plans. Failing to deliver on just transition will hinder the world’s ability to ramp up climate action.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Response to COP28 Draft Outcome appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 9, 2023

At COP28, Canada signs on to Joint Ministerial Statement on Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Statement from Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate

Dubai, UAE – Today at COP28 Canada joined eight other countries in signing a Joint Ministerial Statement on Fossil Fuel Subsidies, to address inaction on a 14 year old commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.

“Canada and its allies have been talking about the need to end fossil fuel subsidies for 14 years. How much longer will we have to keep putting up with empty promises, while our governments continue to funnel tens of billions of public dollars towards the wealthy oil and gas companies whose activities are fueling climate breakdown? Communities across Canada, already devastated by this year’s climate disasters, cannot afford to wait another year.

COP28 must deliver on energy and equity. Countries must agree to phase out fossil fuels, and wealthy countries like Canada must pay their fair share. Canada cannot just end fossil fuel subsidies: the government must redirect that money to address the needs of the Global South as countries transition off of fossil fuels.”

The statement commits countries to increased transparency by publishing inventories which include both direct and indirect subsidies – something Canada has still not done. It also commits countries to developing national strategies for eliminating this support with accelerated timelines and investing in clean growth aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Signatories will set up an international dialogue which will be held yearly at COP meetings.

The Government of Canada has made progress in eliminating some fossil fuel subsidies and international public financing. However, the majority of the financial support provided by the government is in the form of public financing to domestic oil and gas companies. Despite committing to end this support in 2021, the Government of Canada has made no progress, other than a far off promise to develop a plan a year from now.

Background Information:
- Other signatories include the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria and France.
- Last year, the Government of Canada provided over CAD $20 billion in public financing to oil and gas companies, much of it to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. So far this year the Government of Canada has provided nearly CAD $13 billion in subsidies and other financial supports to oil and gas companies in Canada.
- The Government of Canada ended most international public financing provided by Export Development Canada in December 2022. The federal government also introduced new rules ending inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in July 2023. However the majority of the financial support provided by the Government of Canada is in the form of public financing for domestic oil and gas projects, provided through Export Development Canada. Though the Government of Canada has made a commitment to end this public financing, the timeline – fall 2024 – is not ambitious enough.
- Last week at COP28 Export Development Canada helped launch a new Net Zero Export Credit Agencies Alliances.
- Earlier this month Minister Freeland violated the government’s own rules by introducing a loophole into the carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) investment tax credit which will result in subsidies for projects that expand oil and gas production, which is incompatible with achieving climate stabilization.
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ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post At COP28, Canada signs on to Joint Ministerial Statement on Fossil Fuel Subsidies appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 7, 2023

Statement on Canada’s Long-Awaited Oil and Gas Emissions Cap Framework
Statement by Aly Hyder Ali, Oil and Gas Program Manager

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – We applaud the Government of Canada for releasing the much awaited framework on the oil and gas emissions cap. However, having a framework is not the same as having final rules in place, which need to be implemented as soon as possible. We urge the federal government to move swiftly and release the draft regulations in the coming months, at the latest by February 2024. We cannot afford any more delays.

Without a strong cap on oil and gas emissions, Canada will miss its climate targets. The oil and gas industry, Canada’s largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, has repeatedly shown its unwillingness to voluntarily reduce its own emissions. The industry, which has made record breaking profits in recent years while fueling the climate crisis, is well positioned to pull its weight, but will not do so without strict regulatory oversight.

Although the framework marks an important milestone for the federal government’s climate plan, and makes Canada the first national jurisdiction that is working to implement an emissions cap to limit oil and gas pollution, it is far from perfect. The design of the rules must be strengthened:
- The framework’s current 2030 target does not actually force the oil and gas industry to do its proportionate share to reduce emissions. This is deeply unfair to other industries that have already made impressive emissions reductions, while oil and gas companies have just kept polluting. For the target to ensure oil and gas companies are doing their part, it must increase to at least align with Canada’s national emissions reduction target, which is a 40–45 per cent reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. The International Energy Agency wants governments to go further, and has called for emissions from oil and gas companies to decline by 60 per cent by 2030 to keep global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees.
- The inclusion of offsets and free allocations in the framework is also concerning. Emissions reductions must come from oil and gas companies, not purchased from projects elsewhere. The government should not distribute free allocations. Instead, emissions allowances should be auctioned off, with the revenues generated being used by the government to fund climate solutions in other sectors. The federal government must ensure that oil and gas companies are not allowed to use these flexibilities as loopholes to shirk their responsibilities.
- We are also concerned that the proposed decarbonization fund will allow companies credit for speculative reductions from future technologies or will be used as a compensation mechanism to reward the oil and gas industry for meeting its responsibilities. This fund should not replace actual emissions reductions.
The emissions cap framework will likely be attacked by oil and gas companies and some provincial governments, including Alberta. The framework as proposed is already a compromise. The alarmism from the oil and gas industry and provincial governments cannot be used to further weaken the emissions cap before it is implemented. The federal government must stand firm in the face of the unreasonable opposition it will inevitably receive.

For example, the Government of Alberta has demonstrated time and time again that it puts polluter profits ahead of any effort to reduce fossil fuel pollution. It is because of its failure to protect Albertans and Canadians that the federal government is forced to step in with an oil and gas emissions cap.

With COP28 still underway in Dubai, this emissions cap framework sends a strong signal that the federal government is serious about holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its ever increasing pollution. However, to be fully aligned with Canada’s climate commitments, the federal government must strengthen these rules and bring the regulations into force as soon as possible. A long delay between the framework and draft regulations will only allow oil and gas companies to continue polluting, increase the chances of further climate catastrophes and further reduce Canada’s chances of meeting its climate targets.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca, 416-356-2587

The post Statement on Canada’s Long-Awaited Oil and Gas Emissions Cap Framework appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 6, 2023

Protestors disrupt greenwashing by oil and gas industry & Alberta at COP28
New data on Pathways profits & climate track record

Dubai, UAE – At COP28 members of civil society walked out of a Pathways Alliance event, in protest of the presence of these Big Polluters at COP28. The event was hosted at the Clean Resource Innovation Network pavilion. The event was initially scheduled as a panel discussion between the President of the Pathways Alliance, Kendal Dilling, Alberta’s Minister of Environment and others. However, at the last minute the organizers tried to back down and switch to an informal networking event. Members of civil society present in the room in overwhelming numbers pushed back. After a short question and answer in which Dilling did not adequately address the concerns and questions being raised, civil society walked out in protest.

Alongside today’s activities, Environmental Defence Canada is also releasing new research on the Pathways Alliance, a coalition of the six largest tar sands companies in Canada. The key findings are:
- The investments of the Pathways Alliance members remain overwhelmingly concentrated on oil and gas and are not aligned with Paris Agreement goals. Over the last four years (2019-2022), they collectively invested at least CAD $47.3 billion (USD $34 billion) in their fossil fuel operations.
- Five of these companies recorded pre-tax profits of over CAD $45 billion (USD $33 billion) in 2022, more than double their profits in 2021 and four times their profits in 2019 (pre-pandemic). A 10 per cent windfall tax could have generated CAD $4.5 billion in the last year from these five companies alone.
- The Pathways Alliance claims that member companies have spent CAD $1.8 billion on phase one projects related to its proposed carbon capture network. This spending amounts to less than 4 per cent of the combined profits of five of six Pathways Alliance members.
Leading civil society and Indigenous organizations from Canada and around the world, some of which were involved in today’s actions, respond to the presence of the Pathways Alliance and other fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28:

Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate, Environmental Defence Canada

“It is obvious that the Pathways Alliance and the Government of Alberta are not at COP28 in good faith. Today, they tried to run away from civil society, rather than be held accountable for the ways in which they are continuing to prioritize profits over achieving climate outcomes. It is obvious that fossil fuel lobbyists realize that the writing is on the wall, and they are trying everything in their power to delay the inevitable outcome: a phase out of fossil fuel production.”

Emily Lowan, Fossil Fuel Supply Campaigns Lead, Climate Action Network Canada

“The Pathways Alliance is here in a desperate attempt to distract from the issue at the heart of these talks — a fair phase-out of fossil fuels. The Pathways companies would rather hide behind greenwashed PR buys than use their record profits to invest in the real solutions, like a just transition for workers and scaling up of renewables. It’s a bait-and-switch and the international community isn’t buying it.”

Carole Monture, Indigenous Climate Action

“We cannot allow the business interests of polluters to shape false narratives at COP28 or at home. Carbon market mechanisms, like those being pushed by industry and government, depend on growing emissions from fossil fuel use. If there is no fossil fuel pollution there is no need for carbon market mechanisms. We cannot allow carbon markets and false solutions to continue to dominate the conversation and to delay real action. Real solutions rooted in Indigenous knowledge, justice, and self-determination.”

Joe Viipond, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

“It’s painful to be at a climate conference, at a time when the urgency for rapid decarbonization is more evident than ever, and have the Canadian oil and gas industry being so overt in their greenwashing efforts. Framing climate action in Western Canada as essentially only CCS, with no discussion of the immense emissions from combustion, and the experimental and costly (financially and energy)nature of the technology, is dishonest. We need to acknowledge that the only path to saving our climate from irreversible damage is a phase out of all fossil fuels, as quickly as possible.”

Nils Bartsch, Head of Oil & Gas Research, Urgewald

”Oil from Alberta’s tar sands is among the dirtiest fossil fuels on Earth. The extraction process involves destroying ancient boreal forests, blasting away topsoil, drilling deep into the ground and injecting steam to force the oil out – with devastating consequences for the local habitat. Instead of hiding behind false solutions like carbon capture and storage, companies in the Pathways Alliance and the Canadian government need to immediately stop tar sands extraction because the harms it does to indigenous communities, to nature, and to the climate are simply too grave to bear.“

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Protestors disrupt greenwashing by oil and gas industry & Alberta at COP28 appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 5, 2023

Indigenous Nations and Environmental Advocates Denounce Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s Greenwashing at COP28
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, INDIGENOUS CLIMATE ACTION

Indigenous nations impacted by pollution in the tar sands counter the Government of Alberta’s COP28 narrative of being a “clean energy leader”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Today, members from Indigenous communities downstream of the tar sands and environmental advocates held a demonstration in response to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s presence at COP28.

“Time and time again we have been told to trust that the Alberta Government and that government and industry have our best interests in mind,” shares Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action and member of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “Not only do they continually fail to protect our lands and honour our rights, but they actively put all of the people of Alberta at risk by undermining a just and equitable transition within our province. It’s always profits before people in the tar sands and it’s our communities that pay the ultimate price.”

This year in the tar sands region, a major toxic tailings leak, which was covered up for nine months, made international headlines. However, the Alberta Energy Regulator absolved itself of any responsibility and conducted an ‘independent’ inquiry which reduced the concerns being raised to a communications issue rather than a failure to uphold their duty to Indigenous peoples.

Impacted Indigenous nations and environmental groups are holding governments accountable for permitting toxic waste to accumulate in the air, lands, and waters. They are also calling for the dismantling of the Alberta Energy Regulator.

“The Government of Alberta is on a greenwashing tour at COP28. Premier Smith is attending COP28 to sing the praises of the fossil fuel industry. Yet she continues to turn a blind eye to the active seepage of toxic tailings into Indigenous communities’ lands and waters, including the recent Imperial Oil spill and cover-up,” said Aliénor Rougeot, Climate and Energy Program Manager at Environmental Defence.

“The system is broken. It has been since industry arrived more than half a century ago. The regulator, meant to protect our people and our lands, has instead prioritized unchecked and rampant industrial growth. Project after project continues to be approved at the expense of our constitutionally protected Treaty rights. Stop the regulatory capture, and work with us, instead of against us, to save Mother Earth.” says Brian Fung, Manager Government Relations, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

Photo credit: Environmental Defence Canada

Background information:
- Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine has not successfully stopped the seepage of its tailings pond into the Athabasca watershed.
- Local Indigenous communities, the federal government, and the public were not informed of the leak until a separate incident spilled an additional 5.3 million litres of wastewater into the environment.
- The tar sands’ tailings “ponds” now contain over 1.4 trillion litres of waste, covering an area more than 2.6 times the size of Vancouver.
- The oil industry’s solution to the toxic tailings issue is releasing industrial wastewater into the Athabasca River after minimal and unproven treatment. The Athabasca River is impacted gravely by overuse and contaminated by the large volume of discharges that occur annually. Being downstream from the industry’s extractive operations, Fort Chipewyan is one of several communities in the Athabasca Region through which toxins pass.
- For more information about tar sands tailings “ponds” please see this fact sheet.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

About INDIGENOUS CLIMATE ACTION (indigenousclimateaction.com) Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) is an Indigenous-led climate justice organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors and land defenders from communities and regions across so-called Canada.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

Rosalyn Boucha, Indigenous Climate Action, media@indigenousclimateaction.com

The post Indigenous Nations and Environmental Advocates Denounce Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s Greenwashing at COP28 appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 4, 2023

Statement on Canada’s Draft Oil and Gas Methane Regulations Amendments

Statement by Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – We applaud Canada for introducing these methane regulations amendments and following up on the commitment to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 75 per cent by 2030. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, making methane reductions absolutely necessary in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Methane reductions are also relatively simple to achieve and low in cost.

These regulations will position Canada as a leader on reducing methane pollution, but Canada should be striving for virtual elimination of methane emissions. The commitment of $30 million for a Centre of Excellence on methane detection and elimination must help ensure that oil and gas companies are doing everything possible to eliminate leaks and avoid any venting and flaring. The oil and gas industry chronically underreports methane emissions. This needs to come to a stop. Strong oversight will be critical to achieving this goal.

We urge the government to finalize and bring these regulations into force as quickly as possible. Canada also needs to move forward with other regulations targeting emissions from the oil and gas sector, such as the emissions cap. Oil and gas continues to be the largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in this country. Emissions growth from oil and gas is wiping out gains made in other parts of the economy. Canada will continue to fail to meet our climate targets unless we rein in emissions from oil and gas.

We also urge Canada to be supportive of the efforts to reference a fossil fuel phase out in the final text for COP 28. Eliminating methane is essential, but winding down production is the only way to address all the emissions from oil and gas, given that the vast majority of emissions occur when the fuel is burned.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact: Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on Canada’s Draft Oil and Gas Methane Regulations Amendments appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 4, 2023

At COP28, Export Development Canada joins Net Zero Alliance Despite Fossil Financing
Statement by Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate

Dubai, UAE – Today at COP28, Export Development Canada (EDC) joined four other export credit agencies to launch the Net-Zero Export Credit Agencies Alliances (NZECA). NZECA is an alliance of international public finance institutions committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. NZECA members are committing to ensure all of their financing activities are aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees and publishing greenhouse gas emissions data annually. However, EDC continues to provide public financing to oil and gas companies. In 2022, EDC provided around CAD $20 billion in public financing to oil and gas companies (which includes $12 billion for the Trans Mountain Expansion, or TMX, pipeline). So far this year, they have provided around CAD $12 billion (which includes $6 billion in loans for the TMX pipeline).

“Crown corporation Export Development Canada has no place in a net zero alliance. Canada’s export credit agency continues to provide tens of billions each year to oil and gas companies, using publicly-back money to finance the companies and the activities that are fueling the climate crisis. Years of climate promises, including their own net zero commitment, have not made a difference. The Government of Canada must move quickly ahead with new rules to stop all fossil financing. Communities across Canada, already devastated by this year’s climate disasters, cannot afford to wait another year.”

Key Information:
- NZECA commits export credit agencies to:
  - Ensure all the activities they are financing – through guarantees, lending portfolios and other business activities – align with pathways to net-zero by mid-century, or sooner, consistent with a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C. This includes the full life cycle emissions of the projects they are financing, therefore would include downstream or Scope 3 emissions for oil, gas or coal projects
  - Set and publicly disclose intermediate science-based targets for 2030 or sooner for the highest emitting sectors in their portfolios
  - End new direct support for the fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2024
- The alliance currently includes UKEF, Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), Export Development Canada (EDC), and the Swedish National Export Credits Guarantee Board and Swedish Export Credit Corporation (EKN and SEK) as full members. ECAs from the UAE, Kazakhstan and Spain have also joined the Alliance as affiliates. Combined, these ECAs supported an estimated US$120 billion in global trade in 2022 alone.
- In December 2022, the Government of Canada committed to ending public financing for international oil and gas companies provided by Export Development Canada. In July 2023, the federal government also introduced new rules ending inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. However, the majority of the financial support provided by the Government of Canada is in the form of public financing for domestic oil and gas projects, provided through Export Development Canada. The government has committed to phasing this out by Fall 2024.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post At COP28, Export Development Canada joins Net Zero Alliance Despite Fossil Financing appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 2, 2023

Canada’s Delegation to COP28 includes more fossil fuel lobbyists than ever
Statement from Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate

Dubai, UAE – Fossil fuel lobbyists are swarming COP28 this year, including Canada’s official delegation. According to the UN’s Provisional List of Registered Participants at COP28, 35 people with ties to the fossil fuel sector were given Party badges by Canada. Last year there were eight people with ties to the fossil fuel industry included in Canada’s list of badge holders.

“The fossil fuel industry knows that their time is up. As the head of the International Energy Agency has put it, we are approaching the end of the fossil fuel era. For the first time, the key issue at these climate talks is agreeing upon an approach to phase out the production of fossil fuels. So it is not surprising that fossil fuel executives are swarming COP28, in an effort to sabotage progress and peddle their dangerous distractions, like carbon capture and hydrogen. However, it is irresponsible for governments to include these climate villains in their official delegations. That is why we are so disappointed that the Government of Canada has included at least 35 people with ties to the fossil fuel industry in their official delegation, therefore providing access to COP28.”

The Government of Canada issued party badges to:
- 18 employees of oil and gas companies. This includes representatives from Cenovus Energy, Enbridge, Imperial Oil, Suncor and five members of the Pathways Alliance, a coalition of the largest tar sands companies in Canada.
- Six people from groups affiliated with the oil and gas industry, such as Energy for a Secure Future, which runs massive advertising campaigns in Ottawa promoting fossil exports.
- 11 people from companies selling false solutions, such as carbon capture and fossil hydrogen. This includes two employees of Air Products, a company which received a massive $300 million subsidy from the federal government for their blue hydrogen project.
- Other oil and gas lobbyists are attending COP as observers, such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as well as 28 members of the Clean Resource Innovation Network, which serves to promote oil and gas greenwashing and even have their own Pavillion at the conference.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Canada’s Delegation to COP28 includes more fossil fuel lobbyists than ever appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 1, 2023

Statement on Michigan Public Service Commission’s Decision to Approve Dangerous Line 5 Tunnel Project
Statement from Michelle Woodhouse, Water Program Manager, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – We are dismayed by the Michigan Public Service Commission’s decision today to grant Enbridge a permit to construct a dangerous oil pipeline tunnel underneath the ecologically sensitive Straits of Mackinac – through the heart of the Great Lakes. The tunnel fails to address the broader risks posed by Enbridge’s aging Line 5 pipeline and introduces new and terrifying environmental safety risks.

The Commission is disregarding warnings from independent industry experts and putting residents on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border in uncharted, dangerous territory. Furthermore, Enbridge and decision-makers continue to blatantly ignore reputable industry analysis showing that neither the tunnel nor the Line 5 pipeline, are necessary to reliably and affordably meet our energy needs. We have safer options than Line 5 and this dangerous tunnel.

We cannot allow Enbridge to jeopardize the health and safety of the Great Lakes and the many people who depend on them. We need the Government of Canada and the United States to prioritize the health of the Great Lakes, a shared public treasure, and work collaboratively towards a planned and orderly shutdown of the Line 5 pipeline.

Background info:
- This tunnel would be the largest underwater tunnel to carry hazardous liquids in the world, crossing directly through the heart of the world’s largest surface freshwater system, the Great Lakes.
- The sediment under the Straits of Mackinac is of poor quality for tunnel boring, threatening the tunnel’s integrity
- Experts testified that an explosion could create a fuel-rich fire that would burn for days, causing the tunnel to collapse.
- The presence of methane gas introduces the risk that hydrocarbon gas could cause an explosion under the lakebed.
- The Straits of Mackinac is a treaty-protected site of deep spiritual and cultural significance for Anishinaabe peoples. All twelve of Michigan’s federally recognized Tribes have passed resolutions calling for the decommissioning of Line 5
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on Michigan Public Service Commission’s Decision to Approve Dangerous Line 5 Tunnel Project appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
December 1, 2023

Environmental and Farm Organizations Say Provincial Legislation Needs Major Changes to Keep Premier Ford’s Greenbelt Promises
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE

Ten year review process must be overhauled to repair damage caused by Greenbelt scandal

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Nineteen of Ontario’s leading environmental and farm organizations are calling for significant changes to the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023 – legislation introduced by the Ontario government last month in hopes of beginning to extract itself from the Greenbelt scandal.

In its current form, the draft legislation would restore Greenbelt protection to the fifteen key areas of farmland and natural heritage the government stripped of protection in December 2022. However, the group of organizations, which include Environmental Defence, the National Farmers Union and the Grand River Environmental Alliance, have warned the government that the changes proposed fall far short of making good on Premier Doug Ford’s September 21st promise that Ontario will never again remove land from the Greenbelt.

The proper functioning of the Greenbelt requires that farmers, landowners and prospective investors have virtual certainty that lands which currently enjoy Greenbelt protection will never be available for residential, commercial or industrial development or related infrastructure. According to organization signees, the damage the government’s actions and statements have done to that protection “cannot be repaired simply by restoring Greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, and Niagara Escarpment Protection Act protections to the affected lands themselves”, even if that protection is enshrined in statute.

In order to fix the damage, they have asked for amendments that would:
- Expressly prohibit consideration of Greenbelt removals as part of the 10-year Greenbelt Plan reviews provided for under the Greenbelt Act.
- Prohibit the Minister from recommending removal of Greenbelt land as a result of 10-year Greenbelt Plan reviews.
- Close loopholes that have been exploited to allow new uses, like major new highways, to destroy the environmental or agricultural values of Greenbelt lands.
- Continuously expand the Greenbelt to prevent GTHA sprawl from “leapfrogging” into land beyond its current boundaries.
- Ensure that new statutory protection for current Greenbelt lands are not undermined by having to reopen the Greenbelt Act, 2003 every time new land is added.
Phil Pothen, Program Manager, Ontario Environment at Environmental Defence, said:

“Premier Ford promised, in his apology this September, that Ontario would never again remove land from the Greenbelt. However, Minister Callandra’s subsequent comments about the 10-year Greenbelt Plan review have reopened the wound. In order to close the loopholes that the government’s own actions have revealed, and restore the certainty that Greenbelt protection is permanent, that permanence must be stated much more clearly in the Greenbelt Act and built into all its processes.”

Kevin Thomason, Vice-Chair of the Grand River Environmental Network, said:

“It is so important that the provincial government listens to the concerns of its citizens and expert groups that have been advocating for these stronger protections and important improvements to the Greenbelt legislation. Premier Doug Ford promised to fix things and it needs to be fixed better than what they are attempting. Not only does it need to be fixed but there are also improvements such as strengthening and expanding the Greenbelt that they know also needs to be done if our province is going to be successful in the future.”

Max Hansgen, President, National Farmers Union, said:

“Ontario Farmland is a finite resource; continuously and strategically expanding the Greenbelt and implementing protections for all farmland in Ontario will guarantee that future generations have secure access to local food. Ontario loses 319 acres of farmland per day. We simply can’t afford to lose more. Returning the 15 parcels of Greenbelt land is an important first step, but we encourage the government to work with farmers and conservation groups to expand the Greenbelt and farmland protections in the province.”

The full submission to the Ontario government is available here.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence
media@environmentaldefence.ca

Kevin Thomason, Grand River Environmental Alliance
kevinthomason@mac.com

Max Hansgen, National Farmers Union
president@nfuontario.ca

The post Environmental and Farm Organizations Say Provincial Legislation Needs Major Changes to Keep Premier Ford’s Greenbelt Promises appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 30, 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY: Phasing out Fossils at COP28: What needs to happen and who is holding us back?
DUBAI, UAE – COP28 must deliver an agreement to phase out fossil fuels – and Canadian governments have an important role to play. On the first official day of COP28 Environmental Defence will be hosting a press conference to lay out our expectations. Speakers will address why COP needs to land an agreement to phase out fossils, how a Canadian Peetroprovince, Big Oil and Finance are stalling action and promoting dangerous distractions that put Indigenous communities at further risk (like carbon capture and carbon markets) and what Canadian Premiers with little interest in taking climate action are doing at COP.

Who:
- Julia Levin, Environmental Defence Canada
- Julie Segal, Environmental Defence Canada
- Caroline Brouillette, Climate Action Network Canada
- Tzeporah Berman, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Stand.earth
- Carole Monture, Indigenous Climate Action
- Joe Vipond, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment & Calgary Climate Hub
Where:

In Person: Press Conference Room 2 – Zone B6 – Building 77

Virtual: https://unfccc.int/event/environmental-defence-canada

When: Thursday November 30th, 5:30-6PM GST

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post MEDIA ADVISORY: Phasing out Fossils at COP28: What needs to happen and who is holding us back? appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 29, 2023

Two-thirds of Canadians want financial sector regulated to ensure environmental sustainability
ECOJUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People- New polling carried out by Pollara Strategic Insights on behalf of Ecojustice and Environmental Defence shows that a strong majority of people in Canada want banks and financial institutions to invest more sustainably. This means cutting greenwashing and investing in climate action.

The climate crisis is causing havoc for communities across Canada and jeopardizing livelihoods. However, Canada is failing to address a key root of the climate crisis — the continued flow of capital by Canadian financial institutions into fossil fuel development and extraction.

Recent polling demonstrates that the public wants action on sustainable finance — financial activities that take into account social, environmental, and governance factors.
- Three-in-four (76 per cent) support their bank practicing sustainable finance, and 65 per cent support their pension plan practicing sustainable finance.
- Two thirds (65 per cent) support the government passing new sustainable finance regulations in the financial sector, with more preferring mandatory than voluntary regulations.
- More than three-in-four (78 per cent) support the government passing new regulations against greenwashing in the financial sector, with 64 per cent preferring mandatory rather than voluntary regulations.
- The desire for mandatory regulations is driven by skepticism that financial institutions would respect voluntary regulations. Only about one-in-three Canadians believe most banks and financial institutions would follow voluntary regulations.
- 75 per cent believe that financial institutions should prioritize the long-term good of society over short-term profits.
Canada’s financial institutions are among the largest funders of fossil fuels in the world, and continue to underinvest in clean energy. Canada’s big five banks, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Toronto Dominion Bank (TD), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and Scotiabank, all make the global top twenty list of fossil fuel funders since the Paris Agreement was signed, despite each having committed to reach “net zero” by 2050.

Canada is falling behind other leading jurisdictions when it comes to regulating sustainable finance. This puts at risk Canada’s ability to succeed on its climate commitments, or to succeed in the green transition. It also limits climate-friendly investment options for people in Canada.

Other jurisdictions like the EU have taken steps to hold their financial institutions accountable for meeting climate goals. The European Central Bank recently announced that it will impose fines on financial institutions that fail to address the risks from climate change.

In Canada, Independent Senator Rosa Galvez tabled the Climate Aligned Finance Act (CAFA) before the Senate — a legislative proposal for aligning the financial system with climate action. This legislation is currently before a Senate committee for review, and has strong support from climate and financial experts, as well as from people across the country. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s recent Fall Economic Statement promised new action on sustainable finance policy, but more is needed.

It is clear that people across Canada want the federal government to take the lead on regulating the sustainability of the financial system.

Melanie Snow, Ecojustice legislative affairs specialist, said:

“Failing to address the financial forces driving climate chaos directly impacts the lives and livelihoods of everyone in Canada. Not only will people continue to pay the price of worsening climate catastrophes, but allowing financial institutions to invest people’s savings and pensions in fossil fuels risks triggering a financial crisis.

A majority of Canadians agree that the federal government must introduce regulations to make sure that financial institutions fund sustainable projects instead of climate destruction and put an end to rampant greenwashing in the sector.”

Julie Segal, Senior Manager, Climate Finance at Environmental Defence, said:

“Given that two-thirds of Canadians want climate-related financial policy, the government should start using this exciting federal policy lever. People in Canada get that a safe planet means a better quality of life, and as a result, they want their financial institution to invest in climate solutions instead of climate pollution.

Although financial institutions have promised to voluntarily reduce emissions from their investments, most have not taken the actions to deliver on these commitments. For Canada to keep its promises on climate action, it has to regulate the financial sector on climate. Climate-related financial policy is a no-spend solution with clear public support.”

Alex Walker, Program Manager, Climate Finance at Environmental Defence, said:

“A majority of Canadians are looking to their bank and pension provider to practice sustainable finance, but these institutions are continuing to invest heavily in the fossil fuel industry. Three-quarters of Canadians support federal regulation against greenwashing in the financial sector. The climate crisis has already cost billions of dollars in 2023. The Canadian public is looking for ways to ensure that its money is invested in a climate-safe future, and not more destruction. Climate-related financial regulation has clear public support, and the federal government must move forward on it”.

Survey findings come from a Pollara online survey of 1,519 adult Canadians, fielded between August 23 and September 5, 2023. Although online survey cannot be assigned a margin of error, a probability sample of this size is accurate to 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

ABOUT ECOJUSTICE uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment. Its strategic, public interest lawsuits and advocacy lead to precedent-setting court decisions and law and policy that deliver lasting solutions to Canada’s most urgent environmental problems. As Canada’s largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice operates offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Sean O’Shea, Communications Strategist | Ecojustice

soshea@ecojustice.ca

Alex Ross, Communications Manager | Environmental Defence

media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Two-thirds of Canadians want financial sector regulated to ensure environmental sustainability appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 28, 2023

Alberta Energy Regulator Continues to Avoid Responsibility for Toxic Tailings Disaster

Statement by Aliénor Rougeot, Climate and Energy Program Manager, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has one job: holding industry accountable. However, today’s hearings show it continues to evade responsibility for the tailings disaster it knew about and helped cover-up. The AER has become a platform for industry talking points, even using committee time to praise greenwashing from the Pathways Alliance.

While their CEO, Laurie Pushor, boasted about increased communications with impacted communities following the Kearl leak, these were, in his own words, ‘informal’ changes. These changes are neither sustainable over the long term, nor universally applied at all operations where tailings are also seeping and threatening the ecosystem.

One clear outcome of these hearings is that the AER has not taken this leak seriously and has essentially made no changes to how it operates. We commend the committee members who carefully combed through the evidence and pushed the AER to look where it doesn’t want to – at the systemic failure of toxic tailings management. We support the federal government’s call for a tailings risk assessment, which must include both risks to human health at the current levels of contamination, and risks of further tailings leaks, spills, and breaches.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Alberta Energy Regulator Continues to Avoid Responsibility for Toxic Tailings Disaster appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 28, 2023

Statement on Alberta’s Carbon Capture Incentive Program which Puts Billions of Taxpayer Dollars on the Line for a Risky Technology

Statement by Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Today’s announcement of Alberta’s Carbon Capture Incentive Program puts billions of taxpayer dollars on the line for a risky, speculative and unnecessary technology with a track record of expensive failure after expensive failure. Carbon capture has never worked as promised, the carbon is dangerous to transport, and the technology is extremely expensive, especially compared to the plummeting costs of renewable energy.

Last week, the International Energy Agency warned governments against relying on the carbon capture plans of oil and gas companies, calling these a fantasy. Yet governments in Canada, now including Alberta, are ignoring the world’s foremost energy experts, to instead lavish enormous subsidies on the fossil fuel industry’s latest greenwashing scheme.

This isn’t just a bad bet for the climate, it’s bad for Albertans. Albertans should ask whether they want their tax dollars to go toward supporting unproven technology for oil and gas companies, when these companies continue to rake in excessive profits. Further, demand for Canada’s oil will fall this decade, meaning that these billions of taxpayer money will translate into enormous stranded assets.

In making this announcement just days before the start of COP28, Premier Smith is sending a clear message that her upcoming presence at the climate negotiations is not to further climate action. It’s to promote the interests of oil and gas companies and further attack the federal government for the action it is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil fuel industry, which produces the largest chunk of Canada’s emissions. Of course, this should come as no surprise from a province that put a moratorium on renewable energy development. Despite accounting for nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s climate pollution – far more than any other province – it is one of the only provinces that does not have a 2030 emissions reduction target.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement on Alberta’s Carbon Capture Incentive Program which Puts Billions of Taxpayer Dollars on the Line for a Risky Technology appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 28, 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY: Climate Experts Available to Comment on COP28 from Dubai and in Canada
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Between November 30 and December 12, 2023, Environmental Defence experts will join leaders, experts and advocates from around the world in UAE for this year’s session of the global climate negotiations, COP28. Our experts will be able to provide insights on the negotiations at COP28 – including on issues related to energy, oil and gas, finance, just transition, CCS and hydrogen. Our team will also be tracking the participation in the negotiations and proceedings by the Government of Canada, provincial leaders, and oil and gas lobbyists.

What to look for from COP28:
- For COP28 to be deemed successful, countries must agree on a binding commitment to phase out all fossil fuels, without loopholes, in an equitable manner. In addition, countries should also agree to the target of tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.
- 2023 is a Global Stocktake year. Countries will be finalizing their first official assessment of the progress made on meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement in order to ensure the next round of climate plans and targets closes the gap on limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
- A key success of COP27 was the establishment of a new fund to compensate countries for the loss and damages caused by climate disaster. COP28 must deliver on a fully operational and capitalized fund.
- Solidify the process to implement a Just Transition. As agreed upon at COP27, countries will be negotiating at COP28 the scope and objectives of a Just Transition Work Program. It must be based on rights and lead to capacity-building and accountability for countries as they address the socioeconomic impacts of the transition.
For more detailed information about Canada’s commitments, record to date, and the topics under discussion, please see our backgrounder: https://environmentaldefence.ca/report/backgrounder-canada-expectations-at-cop28/

When: Thursday, November 30 to Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Experts available to comment:

From Dubai:

Julia Levin – Associate Director, National Climate

Julie Segal – Senior Program Manager, Climate Finance

Aliénor Rougeot – Program Manager, Climate and Energy

In Canada:

Keith Brooks, Programs Director

Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition Program Manager

Aly Hyder Ali, Oil and Gas Program Manager

Nate Wallace, Clean Transportation Program Manager

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

In UAE: Alex Ross, aross@environmentaldefence.ca

In Canada: Allen Braude, abraude@environmentaldefence.ca

The post MEDIA ADVISORY: Climate Experts Available to Comment on COP28 from Dubai and in Canada appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 28, 2023

Indigenous and Environmental Groups Demand Answers to Imperial Oil Tailings Leak and Cover-up
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, KEEPERS OF THE WATER

Members of the ENVI Parliamentary Committee must leave no stone unturned when questioning Imperial Oil and Alberta Energy Regulator

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – Today, the CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator will appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI). In the coming weeks, Imperial Oil is also expected to appear before the committee regarding their handling of a toxic tailings leak at Imperial Oil’s Kearl facility earlier this year, which was concealed for over nine months. The leak only came to light when a separate incident spilled 5.3 million litres of wastewater into the environment.

“We are calling on Members of Parliament to dig deep and uncover how these major incidents happened, whether those responsible for the cover-up will be held accountable, and how many other uncontrolled tailings leaks are currently putting the environment and communities at risk,” said Aliénor Rougeot, Climate and Energy Program Manager at Environmental Defence.

The seepage from Kearl is ongoing. Following a review of its handling, the Alberta Energy Regulator absolved itself of any responsibility, stating it had followed all internal processes. Indigenous and environmental groups are calling for charges to be filed against Imperial Oil under the federal Fisheries Act and support the request from impacted Indigenous Nations for more regulatory power over the industry’s projects operating in their territories.

“There are no right words. The northern half of Alberta is being destroyed and drained. At the same time, fires were happening and burning up everything. But that’s not stopping anything; it’s business as usual. The Imperial Oil toxic tailings leaks are 13 kilometres from my family’s trapline. The land and surrounding waterways are where I hunt to feed my family and community members. When will government stand up with action for Indigenous rights in this country?” said Jean LHommecourt, co-chair of Keepers of the Water.

“Imperial Oil’s tailings disasters highlight both the gross negligence and failure of oil companies to responsibly manage their toxic waste and the broken regulatory system which enabled the incident and subsequent cover-up,” adds Aliénor Rougeot, “This is a clear case of environmental injustice, and governments must put a stop to it.”

Background information:
- In May 2022, Imperial Oil workers discovered tailings fluid leaking offsite from the company’s Kearl oil sands mine onto nearby land. Internal reports reveal that seepage from this tailings pond has been ongoing since 2020.
- Imperial Oil reported the leak to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and met with the provincial regulator, but the general public and nearby Indigenous communities were not informed about the extent and seriousness of the leak.
- In February 2023, 5.3 million litres of wastewater spilled from the same Imperial Oil tailings area. The toxic waste leaked into boreal wetlands and tributaries where water drains to drinking water sources. It was only through this second spill that Indigenous communities fully learned of the extent of the pervasive belowground leak – which is still ongoing to this day.
- The Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI) interrogated Brad Corson, the Imperial Oil CEO, Laurie Pushor, the AER CEO, and representatives from numerous downstream Indigenous nations in the spring of this year.
- Between January and October of 2023, Imperial Oil has directly lobbied the federal government more than 69 times and through its membership in the Pathways Alliance, has lobbied the government more than 92 times. It is the fifth most active oil and gas company lobbyist.
- Brad Corson, Imperial Oil CEO and the highest-paid energy CEO in Canada in 2022 is one of Environmental Defence’s climate villains. As CEO he succeeded in urging shareholders to vote against a shareholder resolution for climate targets. For more information go to climatevillains.ca
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

About KEEPERS OF THE WATER (keepersofthewater.ca): Keepers of the Water are First Nations, Métis, Inuit, environmental groups, concerned citizens, and communities working together for the protection of water, air, land, and all living things within the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Paula Gray, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

Jesse Cardinal, Keepers of the Water, ed@keepersofthewater.ca

The post Indigenous and Environmental Groups Demand Answers to Imperial Oil Tailings Leak and Cover-up appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 27, 2023

Statement on the City of Toronto ‘New Deal’ with the Province of Ontario

Statement from Nate Wallace, Clean Transportation Program Manager, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Environmental Defence applauds Mayor Olivia Chow for securing three years funding for public transit and emergency shelter operations and maintenance. This will temporarily avert public transit service cuts and the ensuing downward spiral, as well as somewhat mitigate the crisis of inadequate shelter space which has forced a large number of unhoused Torontonians to sleep on sidewalks, parks and ravines. A provincial commitment to purchase new subway cars, and funding support to run transit service on the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs is great news for the people of Toronto.

However, it is unfortunate that the Ontario government required these important commitments to be secured in the form of a time-limited ‘deal’. The provincial government should be making long-term, structural changes in how public transit is funded in Ontario, to benefit all municipalities. Today’s announcement should have included a permanent return to the 50-50 provincial operating cost-share formula for public transit. This would also assist other municipalities in Ontario, such as Ottawa, whose budget currently includes further cuts to public transit service. Meanwhile, the uploading of the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway will significantly help Toronto’s capital budget, but not the operating budget.

The federal government must now do its part. This past summer, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Communities had promised a new infrastructure funding program to replace the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), to be unveiled this fall. It did not come in the Fall Economic Statement. Without a ‘next generation’ program, Canada is hitting the pause button on funding public transit. The Permanent Public Transit Fund does not begin until 2026 and there is no interim transit program in place since ICIP was sunset in the 2022 Budget. It is crucial that the federal government move up the start of the Permanent Public Transit funding program to 2024, and expand it to include funding for public transit operations.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca, 416-356-2587

The post Statement on the City of Toronto ‘New Deal’ with the Province of Ontario appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 24, 2023

Brampton Residents Kept in the Dark as Private Waste Incinerator Set to Quadruple in Size

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, TORONTO ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE

Groups warn that province could approve proposal without giving residents opportunity to understand health and environmental impacts of massive expansion plan

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Environmental groups are raising the alarm about plans for a massive expansion of a private waste incinerator located in the Bramalea area of Brampton, west of Toronto. The facility’s owner, Emerald Energy From Waste, has quietly announced it will more than quadruple its capacity to burn garbage from households and businesses.

Under Ontario rules, there is no longer a requirement for projects like this to undergo a full Environmental Assessment. Instead, Emerald Energy From Waste conducts its own assessment and consultations, submits its documentation, and can assume it has the green-light. This “streamlined” approval process lacks crucial oversight and project scrutiny and poses huge risks to the environment and human health.

“Waste incinerators spew out toxic air pollution,” said Ashley Wallis, Associate Director at Environmental Defence. “Even today, the existing Emerald incinerator is one of the biggest industrial sources of nitrogen dioxide emissions in Brampton—a community already overburdened with air pollution from industrial and transportation emissions. Trucking in over four times more garbage to burn will certainly not make things better.”

“Incinerators are the most expensive and toxic way to deal with waste,” said Emily Alfred, Senior Waste Campaigner at the Toronto Environmental Alliance. “They are dirty and greedy—constantly needing a source of waste for years on end to cover their massive cost. This works against efforts to reduce waste. There are better waste solutions that cost less, create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More than half of the typical bag of garbage in Ontario is recyclable or compostable material. Burning this material is terrible for the environment and for the health of local residents.”

The groups are calling for a full Individual Environmental Assessment of Emerald’s proposal, which would give the public the opportunity to review the plans and ask for additional information on the proposed operations and the impacts on the community.

“People in Brampton have the right to know about a harmful, polluting expansion project happening in their own backyards.” Wallis added. “It used to be automatic for a proposal like this to have a full environmental assessment. There is no ethical reason not to do one this time.”

Read our backgrounder for more information.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

ABOUT TORONTO ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE (torontoenvironment.org): For 35 years, the Toronto Environmental Alliance has campaigned locally to find solutions to Toronto’s environmental problems. As a not-for-profit organization, we work with communities to advocate for a green, healthy and equitable city.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Lauren Thomas, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca, 647-687-2687

Jessica Gordon, Toronto Environmental Alliance, jessica@torontoenvironment.org

The post Brampton Residents Kept in the Dark as Private Waste Incinerator Set to Quadruple in Size appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 23, 2023

Statement: Ontario’s Hydrogen Plan Claims are Absurd

Statement from Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – The Ontario Ministry of Energy’s hydrogen announcement this morning is truly ridiculous. The ministry’s plan is nothing but an elaborate scheme to greenwash its efforts to ramp up polluting gas generation across the province. Their plan is to turn clean, hydro power from Niagara Falls into hydrogen, transport it by truck over 100 kilometres to Halton Hills only to blend it with gas to generate electricity.

It’s hard to imagine a better way to make clean electricity dirty.

This will not bring the plant anywhere close to net zero. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is planning to blend in hydrogen at a maximum rate of 15 per cent on a volume basis. But hydrogen is less energy dense, so the effective blending ratio is even lower. This hydrogen plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 2.2 per cent. And that is in OPG’s best case scenario. Furthermore, OPG itself admits that the technology to fully convert gas plants to 100 per cent hydrogen doesn’t exist.

This is more wasteful spending from the Ontario government. Add this $4.1 million to the $231 million wasted in canceling green energy projects in 2019 and the billions this government is planning to waste by contracting new gas plants that will have to close in 2035 due to incoming Federal regulations. Additionally, Ontario ratepayers will have to pay hundreds of millions to these plants even after they are effectively shuttered because of directions given by the Minister of Energy.

It’s not a coincidence that this proposal comes at the exact moment Ontario is seeking to gain community support for new gas plants. Atura Power is desperately seeking community resolutions in Napanee and Halton Hills in the coming weeks. The Minister of Energy has said that communities must give their blessing in order for new gas plants to get contracts. This announcement is, in no doubt, intended to influence that vote in Halton Hills.

This isn’t energy innovation. It’s overly complicated “Rube Goldberg” energy planning from this government.

It’s time for Ontario to stop wasting our money, stop playing pretend on climate and actually build some clean energy like wind and solar.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement: Ontario’s Hydrogen Plan Claims are Absurd appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 23, 2023

Statement: New report from International Energy Agency reveals the shrinking role of the oil and gas industry in a climate-safe future
Statement from Aly Hyder Ali, Federal Climate Program Manager, Environmental Defence

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – Today’s report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows the urgent need for Canada to implement strong new regulations to cap emissions from the oil and gas sector. In fact, the IEA is calling for a 60 per cent reduction in oil and gas emissions by 2030, a target significantly higher than the current goals set by the federal government.

The report outlines the shrinking role of the oil and gas industry in a future aligned with maintaining a 1.5 degree climate-safe threshold. The current global shift towards renewable energy is already set to cause demand for fossil fuels to peak and decline this decade; however, this is just the beginning. As countries continue to implement policies and climate plans in pursuit of a 1.5 aligned future – the demand for oil and gas will fall by 75 per cent by 2050.

This report shows that the oil and gas industry has a very bleak future if the world is successful in avoiding the worst of the climate catastrophes. Of course, the oil and gas industry is banking on countries to miss their targets. Instead of investing in alternatives to fossil fuels, they use their vast resources to misinform the public and lobby governments to fund their false solutions like carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The IEA warns that oil and gas companies cannot be allowed to use CCS to maintain the status quo. CCS is an expensive and unproven technology that is being used by oil and gas companies to justify ongoing production.

Governments, including in Canada, must not be fooled by the oil and gas industry’s façade. Time and time again, the industry has shown that it is unwilling to voluntarily reduce its own emissions. This is why it is essential that the federal government implements strong regulations to enforce reductions in emissions in line with its own climate targets.

The Government of Canada must come to the realization that the oil and gas industry and climate action are like fire and water – they do not mix. The federal government has a responsibility to protect the interests of the public and to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its pollution. The upcoming oil and gas emissions cap is a clear opportunity to do just that; however, it is a policy that has been marred in delays for over two years.

With COP28 just days away, the Government of Canada cannot afford to wait any longer to announce its plans to reduce emissions from its most polluting industry. Canada has the opportunity to show leadership on a global stage in the fight against climate change, but only if it releases the framework on emissions cap, with a clear 2030 target, before COP. Going to COP28 empty handed would be a tremendous hit to Canada’s international climate reputation.

Key Findings from the Report:
- Oil and gas producers account for only 1 per cent of total clean energy investment globally.
- Current global investment in fossil fuels (USD 800 billion) needs to be halved to match declining demand in a 1.5 aligned world.
- CCS would require an annual investment of USD 3.2 trillion from today until 2050 to capture enough carbon in current projections.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Daniella Zanchi, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post Statement: New report from International Energy Agency reveals the shrinking role of the oil and gas industry in a climate-safe future appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 22, 2023

GROWING CONCERN AROUND RBC’S PURCHASE OF HSBC CANADA PROMPTS LAUNCH OF ‘STOP THE RBC TAKEOVER’ CAMPAIGN

Campaign calling on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to block the biggest bank merger in Canadian history that raises significant concerns on housing, affordability, competition, Indigenous rights and climate change, if it’s allowed to proceed.

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – This is a deal that’s bad for everyone but the bankers. That’s the strong message sent from representatives of a growing collection of civil society organizations who are raising significant concerns over the proposed acquisition of HSBC Canada by RBC.

If approved, it would be the largest bank merger in Canadian history, leaving Canadians with higher rates and fewer financial choices, while further concentrating the power and market dominance of Canada’s biggest bank.

This takeover will put further pressure on housing affordability and cost of living at a time when Canadians are already suffering. As one of the world’s top funders of fossil fuels, taking over HSBC’s Canadian operations, at a time when its parent company was already taking concrete action to lower its financed emissions, is a significant step backwards on climate.

RBC also has a deeply troubling track record on Indigenous reconciliation, by funding projects that violate Indigenous rights and lack meaningful policies on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples.

That’s why X organizations including Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, Environmental Defence, Gidimt’en Checkpoint, The Shift, Greenpeace Canada, Stand.earth, Shift: Action for Pension Health and Planet Health, For Our Kids, Re:Generation, Decolonial Solidarity, Climate Action Network Canada and Leadnow came together to launch the STOP THE RBC TAKEOVER campaign.

“Less competition in banking means higher prices and fewer options for Canadians already struggling to meet record mortgage payments,” said Keldon Bester, Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. “Canadians should not have to bear the cost of eroding competition in our banking sector as a result of our weak competition laws. Minister Freeland must block this transaction and protect competition.”

“Canada’s biggest bank is a major actor in the housing space. They have an obligation to contribute to the realization of the right to housing, especially in light of the unprecedented unaffordability faced by many homeowners and tenants,” added Leilani Farha, Global Director of The Shift, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing. “Instead, by purchasing a competitor, they grow their personal lending business, increase the cost to borrow for HSBC mortgage holders, and decrease options for future homeowners.”

RBC also remains under investigation by the Competition Bureau for allegations of misleading climate advertising after six members of the public submitted a formal complaint.

Canada’s biggest banks have contributed almost 20% of the fossil fuel financing from all western banks since the Paris climate agreement was signed. RBC has contributed over $340B (CAD) in fossil fuel financing since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, making it one of the world’s largest funders of the companies and industries driving climate change.

“If the federal government wants to keep its promises to Canadians about climate action, it has to regulate the financial sector in a way that aligns with Paris Agreement commitments,” added Julie Segal, Senior Manager, Climate Finance, Environmental Defence. “HSBC global is moving towards decarbonization while RBC is showing a tragic track record on climate action, underinvesting in clean energy and disproportionately investing in oil, gas, and coal. Canada can only keep a safer climate if our financial institutions actively invest in climate solutions instead of climate pollution. Approving this deal, especially without adding any climate-related conditions, would entrench Canada’s financial sector in the wrong direction on climate action.”

RBC’s policies of funding projects that lack free, prior and informed consent is leading to them financing police violence and human rights violations around the world including on sovereign Indigenous lands like the Wet’suwet’en traditional territory, as the primary funder of Coastal GasLink. The project lacks the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs – the rightful titleholders of the territory. At its 2023 AGM, the bank deployed police to harass and intimidate Indigenous shareholders and proxy holders, and applied a colour-coded reserve system, forcing Indigenous delegates into a second class room.

“In 2023, no bank that operates like RBC should get any more opportunity to expand when they violate Indigenous sovereignty through their investments in fossil fuel projects that are destroying our lands, water and air,” said Eve Saint, Wet’suwet’en Land Defender. “Canada and its institutions must not only embrace Free, Prior and Informed Consent but ground it in all of its policies and decisions. RBC doesn’t, and that’s why I’m calling on Minister Freeland to kill the deal.”

The Conservatives, NDP, Bloc Québecois, and Green Party have all publicly raised concerns about the proposed acquisition, as has the Finance Committee. They all have asked the Federal Government to kill the deal.

Ottawa has signaled a commitment to addressing the housing crisis, improving competition, addressing climate change and integrating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into its policies and legislation. Approving this bank takeover is a step backward that we can’t afford to take.

This deal raises concerns in these four key areas of government policy, that is why we are calling on Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to STOP THE HSBC TAKEOVER.

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Notes to Editor:

A background report outlining the concerns and consequences of the deal is available here.

Subject matter experts from the areas highlighted are available to speak to the concerns around the RBC takeover.

More information is available at RBCtakeover.com

For more information:

Kari Vierimaa, KPW Communications, kari@kpwcomms.com

The post GROWING CONCERN AROUND RBC’S PURCHASE OF HSBC CANADA PROMPTS LAUNCH OF ‘STOP THE RBC TAKEOVER’ CAMPAIGN appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 21, 2023

Environmental Defence Experts React to the Federal Fall Economic Statement

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – Various experts at Environmental Defence offer their reactions to today’s Federal Fall Economic Statement and its impact on Canada’s climate change commitments, federal climate finance policy and federal government actions on just transition and housing, along with other environmental impacts.

Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate:

“Canada faces a dual challenge: tackling the climate crisis and making living costs more affordable. The surging price of fossil fuels, caused in large part by oil and gas industry profits, is making life unaffordable for people in Canada. The federal government must prioritize investments in alternatives to oil and gas. Kicking fossil fuels out of our homes and off our electricity grids means cleaner air, more comfortable homes and lower bills. Unfortunately, the Government of Canada continues to funnel huge public handouts to oil and gas companies for their false solutions like carbon capture and hydrogen, despite the massive profits these same companies are raking in. Carbon capture is unnecessary, ineffective, very expensive and exceptionally risky. Every dollar that goes towards Big Oil’s favourite greenwashing tactic is a dollar that can’t go towards proven and effective climate solutions which leave our communities better off. The Government of Canada must end all financial support for oil and gas – in any form and without delay.”

Julie Segal, Senior Program Manager, Climate Finance:

“If done right, the government’s commitment to a taxonomy and mandatory climate disclosure can start aligning the financial sector with Canada’s required climate action. Our financial sector has been underregulated on climate, which hurts our ability to reduce emissions and create an affordable economy. For the proposed climate finance policies to be worth their salt, they have to distinguish between serious greenwashing and real climate action. A Taxonomy – a sustainable investment classification system – cannot greenlight any oil, gas, or coal while maintaining credibility. The next steps for the Taxonomy must be informed by independent climate experts. Disclosure can help hold financial institutions accountable for climate action, but must focus on ensuring companies set plans to cut emissions, not only count emissions. Rules to align finance with climate action have been the missing piece of Canada’s climate plan. This commitment from the government is progress on a file they have moved slowly on, but the promises need to turn into policies. The government must pick up the pace.”

Alienor Rougeot, Program Manager, Climate and Energy:

“We welcome the government’s renewed commitment to attaching labour conditions to investment tax credits, to ensure workers and their communities across Canada benefit from public investments in a clean economy. We eagerly await the promised legislation, which should include attaching both prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, informed by the input of workers and their unions. The government must also swiftly improve and pass the Sustainable Jobs Act to ensure workers are involved and supported in the transition to a sustainable economy.”

Phil Pothen, Program Manager, Land Use and Land Development:

“We welcome the government’s commitment to keep using the Housing Accelerator Fund – negotiated as part of the Supply and Confidence Agreement – to continue removing provincial and municipal barriers to compact and low-cost forms of housing within existing neighborhoods and built-up areas, where they can be built most quickly and affordably. Because housing supply in fast-growing regions is being throttled by a shortage of construction capacity, directing construction to more compact forms and to existing neighborhoods, where infrastructure does not need to be built from scratch, is the only realistic way to deliver the large number of homes Canadians need, fast enough to address housing shortages. Beyond that, providing housing in existing neighborhoods, rather than continuing to force Canadians into suburban sprawl, is vital to retrofitting existing post-WWII neighbourhoods and saving what remains of wildlife habitats, wetlands and farms in Canada’s crisis ecoregions.

However we are disappointed, given the scale of the housing crisis and the severe risks of sprawl, that the government has not tied funding more expressly to municipal commitments to stop squandering construction on greenfield development and that funding for non-profit, co-op and public housing is nowhere near sufficient to deliver 20 per cent of new supply as non-market, affordable homes.”

Nate Wallace, Program Manager, Clean Transportation:

“This Fall Economic Statement was a missed opportunity to accelerate much-needed funding for public transit. This past summer, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Infrastructure of Communities had promised a new infrastructure funding program to replace the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), to be unveiled this fall. Without a ‘next generation’ program, Canada is hitting the pause button on funding public transit. The Permanent Public Transit Fund is set to begin in 2026 and there is no interim transit program in place since ICIP was sunset in the 2022 Budget. Given the financial challenges of many cities across the country and the threat of significant transit service cuts in places like Toronto and Montreal, it is crucial for the federal government to accelerate the Permanent Public Transit funding program and expand it to include funding for public transit operations.”

Michelle Woodhouse, Program Manager, Water:

“The Fall Economic Statement includes proposed legislative action to introduce the Canada Water Agency Act and establish the standalone Canada Water Agency (CWA). The CWA will help to address a long-standing need to improve coordination and governance of freshwater management across Canada. It is imperative that the CWA and its legislation prioritizes reconciliation by fostering government-to-government and nation-to-nation relationships for the co-governance of shared waters with Indigenous Nations, while upholding Indigenous inherent and treaty water rights and roles. We also expect the agency to play a key role in both Western and Indigenous science, knowledge creation, and mobilization. Furthermore, the CWA must ensure a strengthened cooperative approach to shared water decision-making and management.”

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Lauren Thomas, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca, 647-687-2687

The post Environmental Defence Experts React to the Federal Fall Economic Statement appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.
November 21, 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY: Windsor Speaks – Our Transition to Electric Vehicles

Windsor | Traditional territories of Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi Peoples. On November 22nd, Unifor and Environmental Defence will be hosting “Windsor Speaks: Our Transition to Electric Vehicles”, an in-person community town hall. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the future of sustainable jobs, exchange ideas about Windsor’s place in the clean economy, and send a clear message to those in charge about what needs to be done. The event will be held from 6:30 to 8:30pm at Local 200/444 Hall in Windsor.

As Canada’s industry and economy change to create a sustainable future, we want to hear directly from affected workers/communities about their hopes and visions; needs and concerns, regarding this transition.

Attendees will consist of workers from across the automotive industry, local industry and community stakeholders, local chamber of commerce and Development Commissions, University of Windsor students and policy experts from Environmental Defence Canada.

WHAT: Windsor Speaks – Our Transition to Electric Vehicles

WHEN: Wednesday, November 22nd – 6:30pm-8:30pm

WHERE: Local 200/444 Hall – 1855 Turner Rd, Windsor, ON

WHO: Unifor and Environmental Defence Canada

Media interviews with spokespeople are available upon request.

ABOUT UNIFOR (unifor.org) Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union, with more than 315,000 members working in every major sector of the Canadian economy. Unifor is Canada’s predominant autoworkers union, with nearly 22,000 members working in auto assembly and powertrain operations with another 17,000 members working in the auto parts sector.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Ken Bondy, Unifor Canada, ken.bondy@unifor.org

Alex Ross, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

The post MEDIA ADVISORY: Windsor Speaks – Our Transition to Electric Vehicles appeared first on Environmental Defence.

This post was originally published on Environmental Defence.