Jonathan Wilkinson: the Minister of Greenwash
Wilkinson is now in charge of Canada’s climate plan, ranked among the weakest in the G20.
With emissions still rising, the global oil and gas sector plans new
extraction projects totalling $1.4 trillion USD in the next five years. 85 per cent of that expansion would happen in the U.S. and Canada.
With emissions still rising, the global oil and gas sector plans new
extraction projects totalling $1.4 trillion USD in the next five years. 85 per cent of that expansion would happen in the U.S. and Canada.
And a big chunk is planned in the Alberta oil sands. Teck’s open-pit
Frontier mine would sprawl across an area twice the size of Vancouver,
swallowing 3,000 hectares of old growth forest and 14,000 hectares of
wetlands. Once built, it would churn out 260,000 barrels of bitumen a
day. But only if Trans Mountain is there to carry all that crude away.
Teck’s proposal has already been approved by a joint review panel in
spite of “significant and irreversible impacts on the environment”. And
in the first weeks of 2020, Minister Jonathan Wilkinson will have the
final say on approving its permit. If he rubber stamps Teck’s mine,
Canada can kiss its international climate goals goodbye.