The project, which is expected to extract 300 million barrels of oil over a 30-year period, is located in the Flemish Pass Basin, about 500 kilometers east of the provincial capital of St. JohnŽs in Newfoundland.
It has now been given the green light after a four-year assessment of the environmental consequences, as “it is unlikely that it will lead to significant harmful environmental consequences, when measures are taken into account”, says Guilbeault.
– The project is therefore given permission to proceed, with strict measures to protect the environment, he says.
Canada is the world’s fourth largest oil producer.
Environmental requirements
The Bay du Nord project has led to a split in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party and has been seen as a test of the government’s efforts to combat climate change by curbing oil extraction. The project is expected to provide the Canadian state with an income of around 3.5 billion Canadian dollars, 24.5 billion kroner.
For the province of Newfoundland, where unemployment is highest in the whole country, the project represents a much-anticipated economic strengthening.
The Ottawa government had set 137 binding conditions for the project, including demands for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, protection of fishing areas, and air quality. Guilbeault says the conditions constitute “some of the strictest environmental requirements ever” in the country.
Criticism from the environmental movement
But environmental organizations criticize the decision. They refer to UN warnings that new oil fields should be closed to avoid irreparable and devastating climate consequences.
– Approving Bay du Nord is another step towards an uninhabitable future. The decision means denying that climate change is real and that it threatens our existence, says Julia Levin in the organization Environmental Defense.
Greenpeace Canada’s climate chief Patrick Bonin says fossil fuels must be phased out as soon as possible and that the approval of Bay du Nord “only exacerbates the climate crisis and the world’s dependence on fossil fuels burning up the planet”.
Political opposition
The New Democratic Party (NDP), a small left-wing party that recently agreed to support Trudeau’s minority government, accuses the ruling party of giving in to “its business partners in the oil and gas sector instead of listening to climate scientists”.
Among the Liberals, we have come out worst among any G7 country when it comes to emissions cuts, and we are the only country that increases emissions every single year. With the approval of the Bay du Nord project, it is difficult to imagine that this will improve, it is said in a statement from NDP.
The decision related to the project has been delayed twice after Trudeau’s government last year strengthened the country’s goal under the Paris Agreement to cut climate emissions by 40-455 percent from the 2005 level, by 2030.
Defends the investment
Guilbeault, who has a background in environmental protection, was elected Minister of the Environment by Trudeau to carve out the country’s climate policy. Guilbeault says that emissions from floating platforms are expected to produce five times less than the average for Canadian oil projects, and that new technology is being introduced in this new project.
He also says that the project is adapted to Ottawa’s climate strategy and that it is “an example of how Canada can carve a way forward by producing energy with the lowest possible emissions while we see moving towards a zero-emission future”.
In an interview with broadcaster CBC, the Minister emphasizes strict emission requirements for Equinor’s project, and at the same time adds:
– The world still needs oil.
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