Greenpeace sues six Canadian oil producers
Environmental organization seeks $10 million or $10 million fine 3% of their worldwide gross receipts for misleading and deceptive advertising.
Greenpeace alleges that the New Paths Alliance is conducting a misleading and deceptive advertising campaign about the impact of the tar sands on the environment. (File photo)
Greenpeace announces that it has filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada against an alliance of the country's six largest oil sands producers. The environmental organization alleges that the New Paths Alliance is running a misleading and deceptive advertising campaign about the impact of the oil sands on the environment.
The New Paths Alliance, made up of oil producers Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy, advances in an advertising campaign that Canada's largest oil sands companies have joined forces for climate action or that they will help Canada meet its climate goals.
These producers also say that they have a goal of reducing emissions oil sands-related annual investments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, according to Greenpeace, this is a greenwashing tactic and the organization is asking the Competition Bureau of Canada to investigate the campaign Let's get this straight. #x27;alliance.
In its crusade against these oil producers, Greenpeace has found an ally in the person of the former minister of the oil industry. Environment Canada Catherine Mckenna.
The New Paths Alliance, which brings together major oil sands companies, is flooding the airwaves with its carbon neutral aspirations, but in reality, its emissions are rising, it is only investing; a fraction of its profits into clean solutions and lobbying against climate action. It's time to draw a red line around greenwashing, Catherine Mckenna said in a statement.
Federal Minister of the Environment from 2015 to 2019, Catherine McKenna chaired the UN Net Zero Commitments Expert Group. (File photo)
The ex-minister was recently appointed by the UN Secretary-General as chair of the Commitments Expert Group net zero from the UN.
Greenpeace argues that Alliance members cannot reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while continuing to increase their production of fossil fuels, the sector that represents the largest source of energy. GHGs in the country.
According to ATB Bank, crude oil production in Alberta hit an all-time high in 2022, at just under 1.4 billion barrels. This is almost double the amount of oil produced in 2010.
New Paths Alliance producers plan to spend $24 billion by 2030 to reduce emissions, and two-thirds of that is on carbon capture and storage systems, such as construction of a transmission line that would capture carbon dioxide from oil sands facilities and transport it to a storage facility near Cold Lake, Alberta. On its website, the alliance says the first field trials to further assess the suitability of carbon sequestration are planned for next winter.
According to Greenpeace, the alliance is banking on carbon capture and storage technologies that have proven to be inefficient and costly. (File photo)
In its complaint, Greenpeace claims that the alliance is banking on carbon capture and storage technologies that have proven to be inefficient and costly, and that the carbon neutral plan doesn't even account for all emissions.
Greenpeace thus refers to GHG emissions produced downstream.
The country's six largest oil sands producers promise to make their production facility carbon neutral, but the vast majority of emissions from a barrel of oil are emitted during its combustion, such as when those emissions are released. ;leak out of a vehicle's tailpipe, so downstream.
According to Greenpeace, the New Paths Alliance is using this ad campaign to influence regulation government and convince the public to support the continued development of the oil sands.
In addition, the environmental organization is asking the Competition Bureau to require the alliance to remove from its public communications any mention of net zero, sustainability, or related terms in addition to issuing a retraction of these claims.
Finally, Greenpeace is demanding that the alliance pay a fine of $10 million or 3% of its worldwide gross receipts to fund remediation efforts and remediation of oil sands sites.
“Any corrective action must live up to their greenwashing tactics.
— Priyanka Vittal, Legal Counsel, Greenpeace Canada
The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency that defends and protects Canadian consumers .
On its website, the Bureau states that if your company makes an environmental claim about a product or service, remember that the laws the Bureau oversees apply. ;directly apply to environmental claims that are false, misleading, or not based on sufficient and appropriate testing.
In 2020, a group of researchers from the University of Oxford published a study (Assessing the rapidly-emerging landscape of net zero targets) in which they analyzed climate statements from 4,000 countries, companies and regional governments, which together emit the majority of GHGs on a planetary scale.
Researcher Thomas Hale's team found that of the 769 entities that have carbon neutrality goals, only 152 have a plan credible and robust criteria for reaching their target.
Researchers at the& #x27;Oxford University said at the time that carbon neutral targets cover two-thirds of the global economy, but strong carbon neutral targets only cover around 5%.< /p>
