• 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
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Naming Fossils as Climate Champions is Like Tobacco Execs Regulating Cigarette Ads: Berman

May 12, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes

Suncor Energy Plant_Max and Dee Bernt:Flickr

Max and Dee Bernt/Flickr

21
SHARES
 

A British Columbia legal research initiative and the UK government might just as well have named tobacco lobbyists to oversee health messaging, after two fossil executives were among 26 “exceptional individuals” identified as Canadian climate champions ahead of this year’s United Nations climate conference, one of the country’s top climate advocates said Monday.

“Appointing oil company executives and bank executives heavily invested in oil and gas as climate champions is like appointing the tobacco industry to regulate cigarette advertising,” Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign and international program director at Stand.Earth, told Climate Home News.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
New!
Subscribe

“Emissions from the production of oil and fracked gas are now the fastest and largest growing source of emissions in Canada,” she added. Canada “wants to be a climate leader and is making some headway, but until the Trudeau government acknowledges the need to wind down oil and gas production, growing emissions will cancel out all our progress.”

Berman was reacting to the announcement last week that the 26 climate champions had been appointed for the six-month lead-up to COP 26, due to take place in November in Glasgow. The list was compiled by the Canada Climate Law Initiative, with input from the British High Commission in Ottawa.

The lineup includes Martha Hall Findlay, chief sustainability officer at Suncor Energy, and Suncor CEO Mark Little, a governor on the board of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Suncor is increasing its tar sands/oil sands production, has promised to cut its emissions intensity 30% by 2030, but has “made no commitment to cut its emissions in absolute terms,” Climate Home notes. CAPP “has repeatedly opposed climate policy and lobbied to weaken Canada’s carbon tax on the oil sector,” among many other items.

Climate Action Network-Canada Executive Director Catherine Abreu told Climate Home there are some “true champions” on a list that includes pioneering environmental broadcaster and advocate David Suzuki, Indigenous climate justice advocate Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed, Trottier Family Foundation Executive Director Éric St-Pierre, and federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna. But “the criteria for what constitutes a ‘champion’ are quite unclear.” 

The issue with looking to fossil companies and their executives as climate champions is also coming into focus in a country that has been a research focus for Berman in recent years. While fossil companies in Norway are planning to electrify dozens of offshore oil and gas platforms, using (nominally) green hydropower in a bid to make the country’s “dirtiest industry as clean as possible,” Bloomberg writes, “the multi-billion-dollar plan will do little to reduce the nation’s overall climate impact.”

The bottom line is that, even if they can reduce their production emissions, fossils everywhere still ship a product that emits carbon pollution when used as directed. When they’re required to calculate those Scope 3 emissions, the results aren’t pretty.

In Norway, the focus on production emissions “will help meet national climate targets, and so allow the lucrative industry to keep pumping fossil fuels for decades more,” Bloomberg says. That approach, “which is mostly funded by the taxpayer, shines a light on how some countries and companies are finding ways to meet their own climate goals without jeopardizing their [perceived] economic interests—and without benefiting the planet much, either. Norwegians may buy more electric vehicles than conventional cars, but the country is a massive exporter of carbon.”



in Canada, Carbon Levels & Measurement, Climate & Society, COP Conferences, Ending Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Oil & Gas, Tar Sands / Oil Sands, UK & Europe

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

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

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
Nuclear Jordan/Facebook

TC Energy Wants to Supply ‘Small-Scale’ Nuclear Reactors to Alberta Tar Sands/Oil Sands

May 4, 2022
399
openthegovernment.org

BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package

August 8, 2022
540
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
260
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

U.S. Emissions Grow Only Slightly, Offer Hope for Meeting Paris Targets

January 12, 2023
79
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Campaigners Plan ‘Eviction’ Events, Ottawa Backs Enbridge as Line 5 Closure Deadline Arrives

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}