Climate Talks Meet Canadian Tar Sands

This week the Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner will make his appearance at the United Nations climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland.  What will be important is how Canada frames their global warming pollution and how ambitious their target will be to mitigate this. 

We seem to be getting mixed messages from Canada.  On one hand, we hear that the technology that captures carbon and sequesters it in underground formations called carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is what is needed and will be delivered so Canadian tar sands oil can reduce the amount of global warming pollution this energy intensive process emits.  Tar sands are the fastest growing source of global warming pollution in Canada.  Currently tar sands are responsible for around 40 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions-nearly the emissions of the Czech Republic-and these emissions may double by 2015.

However, on the other hand, Canada seems to be asking parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take into account their growth in emissions from their production of tar sands oil when considering what their next commitment period target should be. This comes on the heels of a recent Canadian government analysis that projected a quite high price of carbon needed to move this technology into the tar sands. 

So what's Canada doing this week?  Until now all Canada has been successful at doing is getting selected for "Fossil Awards".  The "Fossil of the Day Award" is a daily "award" given to countries that are being problematic in the negotiations. Usually, three awards are given for three different interventions or actions by country delegations that are disruptive, misleading and generally unhelpful in the negotiations.  Canada has racked up an impressive number of these awards, sweeping first, second and third place last week for backpeddling from their commitments and making interventions that do not meet the level of ambition necessary to seriously address global warming.   

Canada has failed to address the multitude of environmental problems caused by tar sands oil development.  These include the open pit mines, habitat fragmentation, toxic waste holding ponds, air and water pollution, upgraders and refineries, and pipelines spreading far beyond the Boreal forest which is a significant carbon storehouse and is the breeding ground for 30% of North America's songbirds and 40% of our waterfowl.  As noted in a recently released report, "Danger in the Nursery: Impact on birds of tarsands oil development in Canada's Boreal forest" this development is destroying habitat for waterfowl and songbirds that come from all over the Americas to nest in the Boreal.

It is the hope of many organizations both here in Poznan and around the world, including those representing environmental groups and indigenous people communities, that Canada begins to halt the expansion of tar sands oil production, address the existing environmental damages, and find solutions to move Canada toward a green economy based on renewable energy.