Although Keystone XL advocates like to portray the flowing of tar sands crude to China as inevitable, the dangerous Northern Gateway pipeline is just as controversial.

Joe Oliver, Canada's environment minister

Oliver’s unexpectedly frank open letter charged that environmental groups attract “funding from foreign special interest groups” and draw “jet-setting celebrities,” referring to donations from U.S. charitable foundations. His flippant treatment of tar sands opponents highlight the divide between national self-interest and environmental concern on the issue:

These [environmental] groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest. They attract jet-setting celebrities with some of the largest personal carbon footprints in the world to lecture Canadians not to develop our natural resources. Finally, if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further.

Now, the pro-oil sands group Ethical Oil is seeking to ban all foreigners from the discussion. An Ethical Oil spokesperson bluntly said, “Foreigners and their foreign hired hands should butt out.” However, many foreign companies are involved in the tar sands and the issue reaches far beyond Canada. NASA climatologist James Hansen has said if they are developed as planned, it’s “essentially game over” for the climate.

Photos: Peter Essick, National Geographic. Edited by Treehugger.

Canada was once seen as a progressive leader on environmental issues. Today, the country is becoming an international pariah when it comes to climate change — facing fierce criticism from environmental groups and world leaders over its decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol and push dirty tar sands around the world.

It’s not just verbal criticism. The Europeans are currently considering a law that would label the carbon content of tar sands crude in the EU as 22% higher than conventional crude. That would discourage refiners, who have to meet 20% carbon reduction requirements by 2020, from importing the fuel.

And back in the U.S., the fierce opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline rages on, spurring a strong movement within the country against the resource.

Canadian officials are doing their best damage control, claiming that the environmental footprint of digging up tar sands is getting smaller. According to the Postmedia Network, Canada’s environment minister Peter Kent claimed at the Durban climate talks that tar sands are “a responsibly and sustainably developed resource, of which we are proud.”

But internal government briefing documents released earlier this month and reported on by Postmedia show a different kind of messaging behind the scenes. In a background memo, send to Canada’s Deputy Environment Minister Paul Boothe, officials admitted the lack of “credible information on [tar sands'] environmental performance.”

“Environment Canada also advised that the absence of scientific evidence supporting their claims was affecting the industry’s ability to raise capital from and sell into (the) foreign market,” reads the memo.

PostMedia obtained the documents through a freedom of information request:

They also noted that the regulatory shortcomings have left the industry ill-prepared to defend itself from foreign environmental policies, such as proposed climate legislation in Europe to reduce pollution from transportation fuels, as well as criticism on the international stage at events such as the global warming summit in this coastal resort town.

“National and international concern over the environmental footprint of oilsands production represents a growing threat to the economic future of the industry,” said the briefing material, sent on June 4 by Assistant Deputy Minister Michael Keenan and released to Postmedia News on Thursday evening through access to information legislation. “Governments need to provide assurance that oilsands production is environmentally responsible in order to secure the industry’s social license to operate.”

The briefing also states that Canadian officials are “committed to managing the environment in the oil sands based on science, not politics or PR.”

Earlier this summer, however, Wikileaks released a 2009 diplomatic cable from the U.S. State Department to the Canadian government on how to improve “oil sands messaging” and increase “visibility and accessibility of more positive news stories.”

With the dust-up in the U.S. over the Keystone XL pipeline, the threat over imports from the Europeans, and the overwhelming negative reaction from groups concerned about climate change, the last year has brought anything but positive news stories for the Canadians.

Perhaps that’s why Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now focusing his attention on getting the product into China.

Related Posts:

• Tar sands: Still dirty after all these years

8. Canada Weather Bomb

On December 8: Hurricane-force winds in a fast-moving “weather bomb” system, including 92 mph gusts, knocked out power for 68,000 people in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Heavy snowfall blanketed north New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, forcing schools to close.

7. Scotland Weather Bomb

December 8: Severe winds of up to 165 mph from another weather bomb battered Scotland and northern England, forcing hundreds of schools to close, destroying a giant wind turbine, and leaving more than 56,000 people without power. “The storm’s winds were so strong as its pressure dropped by 44mb, almost double the qualifying amount for a weather bomb, in the 24 hours to 6am this morning. The winds today were stronger than the 80mph gusts seen when Hurricane Katia hit in September.”

6. Los Angeles Santa Ana Windstorm

November 30: A powerful, late-season Santa Ana windstorm with gale-force gusts “left much of the Los Angeles area strewn with toppled trees and downed power lines on Thursday, slowing rush-hour traffic,” canceling hundreds of flights, and knocking out electricity to over 430,000 residents. “Public schools in Pasadena and 11 other districts in San Gabriel Valley, northeast of Los Angeles, were closed for the day.” Thousands are still without power.

5. Colombia Landslide Kills Family

December 5: “Heavy rains set off a landslide that swept over a home in central Colombia, flattening it and killing seven members of the same family.” “Five women and two young girls died in the disaster, which was caused by heavy rains in the Herveo municipality. The husband of one of the women survived.”

4. Killer Kenya Floods

December 2: “Three children were killed in a landslide as the rains drenching the country continue to wreak havoc. Thousands more have been forced to flee flooded homes.” A total of 14 people have been killed as bridges and roads have been washed away in “some of the heaviest rainfall it has seen in 50 years.” Meanwhile, crippling drought continues in northern Kenya.

3. Record Colombia Floods Cause Bus-Burying Mudslide

On December 8, a Columbia mudslide swallowed a bus, killing six. “One of the victims managed to call for help by cellphone and told relatives she was trapped before she died, said Cesar Uruena, rescue director for the Colombian Red Cross. The five other victims of the accident Wednesday night included a police officer and the bus driver and his young son, Uruena said.” Heavy rains flooded about 3,500 homes south of Bogota, with waters up to 5 feet deep in places. “Up to 10,000 people have been affected by the floods and the cresting of Bogota’s river.” Columbia’s unrelenting rains have caused at least 127 deaths since September.

2. Indonesia Landslide Kills 35

November 30: “Heavy rains triggered the landslide on the island of Nias, burying at least 37 houses.” Thirty-five people were killed. “Heavy rains the past three days had caused the hill to crumble. We are now still trying to pull out trapped victims from the landslide,” district disaster management agency official Robertna Mendeva told AFP on December 1. “It’s difficult as it is still raining very heavily now.”

1. Durban’s Killer Climate-Talk Floods

November 28: Ten people along South Africa’s east coast were killed, 700 houses destroyed, and thousands left homeless following torrential rains that struck the city hosting the international climate talks. The destruction was worst in the shack towns that surround Durban, highlighting the vulnerability of the poor to climate disasters.

This year’s climate devastation has shattered records. There have been 14 billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States alone, causing damages cost at least $53 billion. The floods in Thailand were that nation’s worst “Weather-related catastrophes in Asia have more than tripled over the last 30 years,” Munich Re reports. “In China alone, weather-related disasters have more than quadrupled since 1980.”

Despite the exponentially growing damages fueled by exponentially growing carbon pollution, the world’s top polluters — China and the United States — have insisted that new steps to cut carbon won’t happen before 2020.

Yesterday, Washington, D.C. facd a severe storm that “had it all: heavy mountain snow, raging wind, and severe thunderstorms” that went down as the wettest December 7th on record. In Canada, a nasty snowstorm has left 30,000 without power. Scotland and Britain are facing the fiercest storm since 2007, a “red warning” “weather bomb”:

Scotland battened down the hatches with school, offices and attraction not opening or closing early … The storm’s winds were so strong as its pressure dropped by 44mb, almost double the qualifying amount for a weather bomb, in the 24 hours to 6am this morning. The winds today were stronger than the 80mph gusts seen when Hurricane Katia hit in September … WeatherOnline forecaster Simon Keeling said: ‘The weather machine has thrown absolutely everything at us, from wind to snow. Just about anything that can be mustered has been on the cards.‘

At the Durban talks Environment Minister Peter Kent acknowledged Canada is well past safe temperatures:

Time is really running short in terms of the 2 degrees, and in Canada we’re already past that in the Arctic, and we really do need to find a way to get meaningful significant reductions from the major developing economies.

Back in Canada, Stephen Harper’s right-wing government demonstrated Kent’s words are meaningless. It gave the go-ahead today for a major tar sands project that is the equivalent to 270,000 more cars on the road.

As global greenhouse pollution increases at record rates, the U.S. has experienced an unprecedented 12 billion-dollar weather disasters this year. The extreme weather hitting the countries making key decisions regarding tar sands and pollution regulations serves as a forewarning of the disasters we face with insufficient action on climate action.

On Monday, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) closed its acquisition of bankrupt Canadian tar sands producer OPTI Canada Inc. CNOOC gets OPTI’s 35 percent working interest in Long Lake and three other project areas located in the Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta, split with Canadian operator Nexen Inc. The deal cost $34 million for OPTI stock and $2 billion in debt. [Reuters]

On Wednesday, CNOOC and Nexen formed a joint venture, giving CNOOC a 20 percent working interest in the Kakuna, Angel Fire, and Cypress deepwater exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico. [BusinessWeek]

These dirty investments in North American fossil fuel projects are just the latest in a rapid string of deals to give China access to high-polluting carbon energy from the Americas. Over the last three years, China-owned companies have invested over $18 billion in tar sands, shale gas, and coal projects in Canada and Venezuela:

November, 2011: China signs a $6 billion deal with Venezuela to develop tar sands — $4 billion to the Chinese-Venezuelan tar sands company Sinovensa to increase production from 118,000 barrels a day to 1.1 million barrels a day in 2014, and $2 billion to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela for refining projects, drills, and equipment. [Channel News Asia]

October, 2011: Sinopec spends $2.2 billion to acquire shale gas producer Daylight Energy, which controls 300,000 acres of oil and gas property, at a 70 percent premium. [Bloomberg]

May, 2010: China Investment Corporation spends $1.25 billion on Alberta tar sands — $817 million for a 45 percent stake in the Peace River tar sands project owned by Penn West Energy Trust, and $435 million for a 5 percent interest in the company. [Penn West Energy]

April, 2010: Sinopec spends $4.65 billion to buy ConocoPhillips’ 9 percent stake in tar sands producer Syncrude Canada. [New York Times]

February, 2010: PetroChina spends $1.73 billion to purchase 60 percent of AOSC’s MacKay River and Dover tar sands projects. [CRI]

July, 2009: China Investment Corporation spends $1.5 billion to purchase 17 percent of Teck Resources, Canada’s largest metallurgical coal and copper mining company. CIC was recently granted a seat on Teck’s board of directors. [China Daily]

In 2005, PetroChina and Enbridge signed a $2 billion deal to help the Canadian tar sands company develop the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a project intended to deliver 400,000 barrels of tar crude a day from Edmonton, Alberta to the British Columbia port town of Kitimat, giving China access to direct tar sands shipping.

The pipeline has been unbuilt for years, facing stiff opposition and economic challenges. This Friday, Gitxsan First Nation announced it would become “the first aboriginal partner” for the pipeline. On Thursday, 130 native groups in Western Canada pledged to block the project. Enbridge has offered up to a 10 percent stake in the pipeline to first nations who sign on.

Canada tar sands

Despite the urgency of the Durban climate talks, industry interests have largely undercut global progress on lowering greenhouse gases. One example is the news that the United Kingdom has been quietly working to prevent a European Union climate penalty on Canadian tar sands oil. Throughout Europe’s negotiations, the U.K. government has been in close contact with oil companies Shell and BP:

At least 15 high-level meetings and frequent communications have taken place since September, with David Cameron discussing the issue with his counterpart Stephen Harper during his visit to Canada, and stating privately that the UK wanted “to work with Canada on finding a way forward”, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.

As Europe grapples with cutting greenhouse gases, U.S. activists are fighting the development of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline. Tar sands produce an even dirtier form of oil than conventional crude, with 23 percent higher greenhouse pollution, and NASA scientist James Hansen says development would mean “game over for the climate.”

The Guardian’s revelation about lobbying in the U.K. simply highlights how special interests have swayed decision-makers both domestically and abroad. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has lobbied seven state governments to approve the project. And in Canada, TransCanada lobbyists have met with Canadian officials at least 56 times since May.

President Obama’s decision regarding Keystone XL, as well as the European vote on tar sands penalties this Friday, present opportunities for nations to finally put public interest ahead of Big Oil’s gains.

But that image is changing in the eyes of some world leaders who are concerned about Canada’s regression in climate policy. As the country threatens to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol at the Durban climate talks, and pushes aggressively to extract and export carbon-intensive tar sands crude, Canadian officials are facing increasing pressure on the international stage.

This week, a group of African leaders is issuing a plea to Canada to consider the environmental and social consequences of the country’s energy policy. The group includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a prominent South African activist who has been a leading voice on climate justice.

The group has issued a new ad in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper that slams the Canadian government for moving backward in addressing climate change — explaining the social consequences that stretch far beyond the country’s borders:

Canada, you were once considered a leader on global issues like human rights and environmental protection. Today you’re home to polluting tar sands oil, speeding the dangerous effects of climate change. For us in Africa, climate change is a life and death issue. By dramatically increasing Canada’s global warming pollution, tar sands mining and drilling makes the problem worse, and exposes millions of Africans to more devastating drought and famine today and in the years to come. It’s time to draw the line. We call on Canada to change course and be a leader in clean energy and to support international action to reduce global warming pollution.

The coalition, called Draw the Line, is being led by a leading environmental advocacy organization in Canada, Environmental Defence. Other organizations include Greenpeace, the National Resources Defense Fund and the Sierra Club. African leaders behind the campaign also include Jay Naidoo, a former cabinet member during Nelson Mandela’s presidency, and Zwelinzima Vavi, a general secretary from the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

While advocates step up their campaign efforts, negotiators are also expressing concern over Canada’s position. The country is also being criticized by China’s climate negotiator, Su Wei, for signaling its intent to pull out of Kyoto, saying “it will definitely add obstacles in our negotiation.”

Meanwhile, as Europeans take a harder line with countries over an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, officials in the region are considering legislation that would reclassify the carbon intensity of tar sands crude and “essentially ban” it from the EU under greenhouse gas reduction targets.

A key issue during the Durban climate talks will be if Canada — a country that has historically been seen as a North American ally in addressing climate change — will continue to move further away from action.

China CO2 emission in millions of metric tons from 1980 to 2009

China ‘won’t follow US’ on carbon emissions

China will not allow its carbon dioxide emissions per person to reach levels seen in the US, according to the minister in charge of climate policy.

Xie Zhenhua, vice chair of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that to let emissions rise that high would be a “disaster for the world”.

Chinese per-capita emissions may reach US levels by 2017, a recent study said.

JR:  I don’t see how China’s per-capita emissions hit ours in 6 years.  Maybe in the 2020s if they don’t reverse trends this decades.  But that misses the point: China’s  total emissions are 40% higher than ours and  will probably be double ours by 2020 — and that by itself would be a disaster for the world.

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Mr Xie was speaking during a visit to the UK that explored co-operation on clean energy and climate issues.

It included signing a Memorandum of Understanding with UK Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne on areas for joint research.

An analysis reached last month by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) put China’s annual emissions at 6.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person, compared to the US figure of 16.9 tonnes – although other analyses put the US figure higher, around 20 tonnes.

But the Chinese number has tripled since 1990, says the JRC – and could rise to US levels within six years.

JR:  Again, I don’t see how that is possible.  But it confuses the more important point.  China’s  current pace of coal plant construction is already  helping to drive the planet toward  catastrophe (with  the help of U.S. denial and  intransigence).

Climate Change May be Spiking Mercury in Yukon’s Rivers

The massive Yukon River Basin has mercury levels vastly higher than many other comparable river bodies, the U.S. Geological Survey said this week, with release from thawing permafrost singled out as the prime suspected reason.

A five-year sampling shows the basin, which is roughly twice the size of California, has mercury levels 32 times that of some other rivers included in the study, published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology….

“We have several hypotheses about (the cause) and one of them is the thawing permafrost . . . which is in direct response to a warming climate,” said Paul Schuster, a hydrologist with the USGS national research program.

“Our data sets don’t tie (mercury and climate change) together, but they do suggest it.”

The researchers took samples from the region between 2000 and 2005, and measured total mercury, which includes dissolved mercury and particulate mercury as well as the element’s other forms, such as the more harmful methylmercury, which can get into tissue.

House Writes a Bill to Excuse U.S. Carriers

One of the stranger bills to be considered by Congress passed by a voice vote on Monday evening. Officially named the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011, it essentially tells American airline carriers that it is illegal for them to participate in the European Union’s cap and trade system, which charges companies for producing emissions beyond their allotted limit.

Beginning Jan. 1, all flights landing at European Union airports will in theory incur a penalty if they produce excessive emissions. American carriers, airlines, with a good measure of support from the Obama administration, have been campaigning to be exempted from the rules. House Bill 2594, sponsored by Representative John Mica, Republican of Florida, is another salvo in that effort.

The European Commission will go forward with its plan to include all airlines, said Isaac Valero-Ladron, the European Union’s spokesman for climate action. “‘We are confident that the U.S. will respect European law, as E.U. always respects U.S. law,” Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s commissioner for climate action, tweeted just after the vote.

Delhi faces high risk from global warming – study

Rapidly growing megacities in Africa and Asia face the highest risks from rising sea levels, floods and other climate change impacts, says a global survey aimed at guiding city planners and investors.

The study by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft, released on Wednesday, comes as the United Nations says the world’s population will hit seven billion next week and as huge floods inundate areas of Thailand and the capital Bangkok.

The survey ranks nearly 200 nations in terms of vulnerability to climate change over the medium term.

Haiti is the country most at risk from climate change, while Iceland is the least vulnerable. Thailand is ranked 37th.

Commonwealth small island states call for climate action

African, Caribbean and South Pacific states on Tuesday said big greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States were dragging their feet on tackling climate change and urged a Commonwealth leaders summit this week to call for urgent action at global climate talks in November.

“The scientific evidence available to us says we ought to act now,” said Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi after a meeting of 48 small island and developing nations in Perth.

Global warming is set to be a focus for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference in South Africa from Nov. 28.

Many Commonwealth members are developing nations that are vulnerable to a predicted increase in more extreme droughts, floods, rising sea levels and spread of infectious diseases.

Australia, which is hosting CHOGM, said the very existence of some small nations depended on the world avoiding average global warming by two degrees Celsius.

“If we fail to do so we can kiss goodbye to some small island states,” said Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

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See video of the demonstrators here.