• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update May 30, 2023
House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions May 30, 2023
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 30, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 30, 2023
Next
Prev

Climate Threat to North Atlantic Ecosystem Means Newfoundland Can’t Double Oil Production

March 21, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

catmoz/pixabay

catmoz/pixabay

39
SHARES
 

Climate change is a threat to the entire North Atlantic ecosystem, and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador won’t be able to do its part to confront the crisis without abandoning plans to double its oil and gas production, Memorial University professor Sean McGrath told a conference audience in St. John’s last weekend.

“From ocean acidification, to the loss of plankton, to the migration of fish to colder waters, to the loss of ice coverage in Labrador…there is no aspect of the North Atlantic ecosystem that is not currently being affected by climate change,” said McGrath, a philosophy professor and director of the non-profit For a New Earth (FANE). “And if trends continue, the effects will be far, far more devastating for us in the future.”

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

He was speaking at a Future of Oceans symposium sponsored by FANE that drew speakers like Iceland’s Aslaug Asgeirsdottir, who studies the world’s fisheries. “That was something that was I think an eye-opener for many,” he told CBC. “We know the facts of climate change, but not many of us spend three hours listening to climate scientists talk about how it’s affecting the oceans.”

McGrath contrasted the sense of urgency at the conference with government policy in Newfoundland and Labrador, where Environment Minister Graham Letto recently released plans to reduce the province’s greenhouse gas emissions from 10.8 to 6.9 megatonnes by 2030. The catch: the government of Premier Dwight Ball also plans to open more than 100 new exploration wells and double its production of oil and gas to 650,000 barrels per day or equivalent by the same year.

“It’s virtually impossible for Newfoundland and Labrador to reduce its emissions and double its oil production at the same time,” McGrath said. “We’ve got to get off this fossil fuel. It’s just incompatible with a sustainable fishery. It’s incompatible with a healthy North Atlantic. It’s even incompatible with civilization.”

Earlier this month, The Newfoundland and Labrador Independent published an analysis by community energy planner Nick Mercer that critiqued the provincial climate plan.

“You could almost mistake its 55 glossy pages of picturesque coastal landscapes for a tourism brochure, save a strange word map of climate policy-related buzzwords,” Mercer writes. While he gave the province a hat-tip for acknowledging climate change as an urgent problem, Mercer reached a similar conclusion to McGrath’s about the plan’s chances of success.

“We cannot have meaningful climate action in Newfoundland and Labrador without curtailing the production of oil and gas,” he writes. “In 2016, the production of 77 million barrels of offshore crude oil was responsible for 1.6 megatonnes of GHG emissions. Assuming the province’s stated goal of increasing offshore oil production to 237 million barrels annually, we can extrapolate our numbers to suggest emissions from the sector will account for a staggering 4.9 Mt annually by 2030. The province’s new annual emissions target for 2030 is 6.9 Mt, meaning offshore oil production alone will account for 71% of provincial emissions, assuming targets are met.”

Its investment in decarbonization efforts, at C$225.4 million, “is a woefully inadequate amount to achieve meaningful reductions of greenhouse gas emissions,” he adds.

“In general, the climate action plan contains a lot of bark, but little bite. Terrific action items, but very little explanation of how these actions items will be implemented to achieve emissions reductions.”McGrath said he had drawn hope from the massive #FridaysForFuture protests that took place around the world on the Friday before his conference convened. “This is not the end of the world. This is the time for action and change,” he said. “The millennials are convinced that climate change is real, that it’s anthropogenic, that is it’s caused by human industry, and that it needs to be stopped.”



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Food Security & Agriculture, Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise, Oceans, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Equinor
Oil & Gas

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
579
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook
Climate Action / "Blockadia"

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley
Energy Politics

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
75

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
579
/Piqusels

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 31, 2023
588
Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2.6k
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 31, 2023
481
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
47
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
233

Recent Posts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
75
Equinor

Equinor Delays Bay du Nord Offshore Oil Project, Blames ‘Volatile’ Markets

May 31, 2023
108
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
202
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 30, 2023
594
David/flickr

Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023
79
Nicolas Rénac/Flickr

Climate Change to Cut Coffee Growing Lands by Over 50%

May 30, 2023
79
Next Post
GTD Aquitaine/Wikipedia

Federal Budget Creates New Revolving Fund for Municipal Climate Action

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}