Statement from Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate
Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – Canadians have fought for two decades to make our country safer in the face of climate change. We’re seeing the results. For the first time ever, Canada’s emissions are going down while clean investments and renewable energy jobs are growing.
Oil and gas companies want to take a page from the Trump playbook and gut all of the progress that Canadians have made. In a letter sent yesterday to leaders of Canada’s political parties, 14 CEOs of some of the wealthiest oil and gas companies operating in Canada shared their plan to destroy Canada’s climate progress and put the places and people we love at risk.
We’ve seen this tactic before, for example, in the industry’s secret response to the devastating COVID pandemic. The oil and gas industry never lets a crisis go to waste, seizing every opportunity to push the same tired rhetoric we always hear from oil and gas companies and their political mouthpieces: expand fossil fuels and pipelines, scrap any rules limiting pollution, eliminate any form of environmental assessments and provide more taxpayer handouts.
Of course, none of these things would help with the current situation. That shouldn’t surprise us. Oil and gas companies don’t have the best interests of Canadians – or other parts of the Canadian economy – at heart. Why would they? According to recent data, more than 70 per cent of oilsand production in Canada is owned by foreign – mostly American – shareholders. For decades, these companies have stood in the way of climate progress – while their pollution continues to skyrocket.
This is Canada’s time to forge our own future based on our own values. We can grow our independence, bring Canadian innovation to the world, and expand our trading partners by investing in new infrastructure and industries, including low-carbon steel and aluminium (which we are uniquely positioned to produce), clean electricity, food, aerospace products, public transit, and more. We have the skills, people, and resources to lead the clean energy revolution.
We can’t allow oil and gas companies to put Canada’s hard-fought, years-long climate progress at risk to benefit their wealthy CEOs and American shareholders while at the same time failing to acknowledge that the world’s energy future will be clean.
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:
Midhat Moini, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca
