For years, governments have been shovelling rhetoric about commitments to reduce carbon emissions. The most famous is the international commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Yet, emissions have increased by 60% since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed in 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit. The Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement were updates and all of the new commitments are based on the same commitment signed almost 30 years ago. A 60% increase in emissions is all Canada’s government has to show for almost 30 years of supposed commitment. Despite rising rhetoric on climate, very little action has been taken by governments worldwide to reduce emissions and what action has been taken is simply not enough.
Scientists are warning that the world is running out of time as the impacts of climate change get more catastrophic: floods, droughts, wildfires, and melting polar and glacier ice.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) – once a loud supporter of fossil fuels and big oil – has stated that investments in carbon based fuel sources need to stop NOW, or net zero by 2050 commitments will be impossible to fulfill. Yet it is not too late, far from it. The International Energy Agency has also developed a comprehensive plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. The plan would reduce oil and coal production and consumption and invest in renewable energy. This would use many existing technologies and move prototype technologies into production, increase energy efficiency in products and society, and create 30 million jobs to replace the 5 million projected to be lost by cutting carbon production. This is not a pipe dream, it does not need technologies of the imagination, it can be done, and it should start right now before the much more substantial cost of climate catastrophe rises to unprecedented levels. All it needs is governments to actually act.
So, what the @#$% are they doing?
Canada is sinking ever-increasing amounts of money into building a pipeline. The Trans Mountain (or Trudeau Memorial) pipeline will cost at least $16.6 billion, nearly as much as the $17.6 billion in the federal Liberals’ recent budget for climate conversion. This is like bailing water while leaving the tap running. If the pipeline gets built, the Canadian government will have to disregard its commitments to reduce carbon energy production and be prepared to destroy several environmentally sensitive areas, violate the land rights of Indigenous peoples, and risk an ecologic disaster on BC’s west coast.
However, a report from Simon Fraser University has stated that in a global economy that acts on commitments to reduce carbon emissions, it will be impossible to see a return on the cost of constructing the pipeline. The critiques of this report claim there is a scenario where the global economy does not take any actions to commit to net-zero emissions, and in such a scenario the pipeline will see massive returns in its investment. A climate catastrophe is literally the best-case scenario that Trudeau’s pipeline can hope for.
Of course, no single nation can shoulder the whole responsibility of climate change. The IEA’s plan highlights the need for international cooperation, an increase in cooperation to unprecedented levels, in order for global emissions to become net zero. Canada investing in oil is no exception as the UK and China are also expanding carbon-based energy production. However, one less government investing in carbon and one more nation investing in renewables would not be bad news for the planet’s ecosystem. The Liberal government has claimed that it is globally aware and responsible, but the government’s actions around the pipeline are anything but aware and responsible.
As if contributing to climate change and being a waste of money is not enough, its construction is doing damage to the land and all for only 90 jobs upon completion! Construction of the pipeline has had to halt several times due to environmental concerns; most recent has been concerns over damage to hummingbird nesting grounds. The company recently concluded discussions with Environment and Climate Change Canada to mitigate, not prevent, disturbances to migratory birds in the area and resumed construction. However, the only way to prevent such disturbances would be to halt construction of the pipeline altogether. Hummingbirds are known for fiercely defending their nests at all costs – perhaps the Liberal government ought to learn from their tenacity.
Land and water defenders have issued concerns over the well-being of British Columbia’s salmon and other fish populations should this pipe burst or leak into any of the many bodies of water it runs under. The company has already had to conduct re-drillings for sections of pipe under the Thompson River due to “technical challenges,” not exactly inspiring confidence for the other sections of pipe that have already or will be drilled under rivers, such as the Fraser River. These rivers are home to spawning grounds vital to the salmon of the region, which are already in danger. Trans Mountain has consistently shown a disregard for salmon and other species, such as when it carried out construction within salmon spawning areas years ago! The company is so incompetent that it did not even know the GPS coordinates of its own sites, resulting in court cases being thrown out! Now the Canadian government trusts them to protect the environment including BC’s largest salmon habitats and the waters around the City of Vancouver.
In addition, the pipeline violates the sovereignty of Indigenous nations across the province of British Columbia – so much for reconciliation and nation to nation relations. Indigenous people have been at the forefront of resistance to the pipeline and have voiced many of these environmental concerns since construction of the pipeline started. They are defending their lands and waters – knowing that water (not bitumen) is life. The pipeline is damaging to the environment and climate, and a waste of money that provides very few long-term jobs. This continues a long list of transgressions, from land theft to residential schools, upon Indigenous peoples.
Again, what the @#$% is the government doing?
A blank cheque has been issued to the pipeline, despite all of the above, despite concerns about global climate, the potential for local environmental disasters, growing financial costs, and despite the concerns of Indigenous peoples. The Trudeau government continues to push for the construction of this nonsensical project at an escalating cost of billions while the justifications grow thinner every day.
That is what the government of Canada is doing.
In the face of the government’s stubborn commitment to ruination, Socialist Alternative is working, along with many others, for policies that respect Indigenous rights, provide good jobs, and protect the environment and climate. SA supports efforts to resist and protest the construction of the pipeline and efforts to raise awareness among Canadians that the Trans Mountain Pipeline is not in our best interests. The Trans Mountain Pipeline must be shut down, no half-way agreement can be reached on this issue. Use the billions to provide good jobs and protect the environment
That is what Socialist Alternative is doing.
