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People & Planet is taking action on tar sands

People & Planet activists declared the TD Newcrest Tar Sands Investment Forum a “climate crime scene”, and called on UK investors not to be fooled by the greenwash and not to invest in decades of future CO₂ emissions.

The forum, held at the 5-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in January 2009, aimed to increase UK investment in tar sands, and to demonstrate its environmental sustainability. It was the largest forum of its kind outside of Canada, with investors from all over the UK in attendance.

Mel Knight, energy minister for Canadian province Alberta, was delivering his keynote address as the protesters cordoned off the hotel entrance as a climate crime scene. His aim was to spin the tar sands as environmentally sustainable through the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is described by Greenpeace as “…the ultimate industry pipe-dream”. A report presented to the Canadian government has shown that only a very small percentage of the emissions from tar sands could be captured and stored using CCS technology.

“Mel Knight and the rest of the Canadian government are trying to greenwash the tar sands industry. They know that CCS will not cut emissions from tar sands enough to make it sustainable, yet they claim this technology, still decades from implementation, will make it viable for the climate.”

People & Planet campaigner, Hannah Schling

Each barrel of oil from tar sands requires three barrels of water and emits 80kg of greenhouse gasses, three times that of standard crude oil.

Lewis Bassett, one of the protesters said:

Whilst Mel Knight is here to talk about how tar sands are sustainable, we want to make it clear to the investors inside that this is simply not the case. Expansion of the Alberta tar sands is possibly the biggest threat to the climate. We cannot afford to use all the oil reserves we currently have if we want to avert the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. New investment will make this impossible.

Take the matter into your own hands

Canadian legislators have the power to see the tar sands ended. They must be held to account at the next Conference of the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen, when world leader with gather to make a new new deal on tackling climate change. The Canadian Government has shown tentative steps towards increasing carbon taxes[3] but is far from taking affirmative action. For the sake of the global environment, countries across the world have to make a commitment not to exploit dirty fuels however abundant they are. If a rich country such as Canada cannot take such a step, poorer nations cannot be expected to do the same.

There are promising signs: California is enacting life-cycle based fuel law, restricting the emissions of fuel both at source and point of use, which will restrict tar sands imports[3], and the US Government is considering a ban on tar sands imports for Government use[20]. There are also things you can do.

Learn more

Photos and videos:

• National Geographic photo-story
• ITN News Report
• AlJazeera report talking to the people living and working at the tar sands

Information:

• Co-operative Bank’s Toxic Fuels campaign
• WWF Oil Sands website including detailed reports
• Oil Sands Truth campaign
• Tar Sands Watch campaign
• Search peopleandplanet.org for tar sands or Copenhagen