LETTER

Teck tarsands = 1/3 the world’s carbon budget

At the Madrid climate talks, Canada told the world that our number one priority is climate action. In June, 2019, Canada declared a climate emergency.  But if we’re in an emergency, then we should behave like it. We are not.

Justin Trudeau is poised to approve the Teck project - a vast new tar sands mine that will spew carbon into our atmosphere for four decades, contradicting our 2050 net-zero carbon emissions pledge. 

We have 0.5% of the Earth’s population but with Teck we’d use up nearly one third of the world’s remaining carbon budget. At a time when we should be planning a managed phase-out of fossil fuels, there is no form of twisted logic to justify the approval of a new mine that will set off another global climate bomb.

It’s disturbing to watch Trudeau pretend to care about the climate and at the same time continue to champion fossil fuel expansion. A Teck approval would mark a new low in climate hypocrisy.  If you even can’t stop a brand new tar sands mine, then you’re not a climate leader. You’re a climate hypocrite.

I’m asking Justin Trudeau and his cabinet to imagine the alternative to Teck. To imagine it’s the year 2050, and they’re looking back to 2020, that time when they chose a new path, rising to the challenge of climate change. 

That time they made the right decision. That time they rejected Teck.

Rolly Montpellier

Ottawa