What a week it's been on the mass extinction front. It began with an official US delegation to the Bonn climate summit that tried to turn it into a fossil fuels trade show. Sort of like pushing cigarettes at a lung cancer symposium. All class, America. All class.
Then there was the report out of the International Energy Agency that concluded the United States will pass Saudi Arabia at its peak in the extraction and sale of gas and oil by 2025. Washington has served notice. As far as the US and fossil fuels are concerned, it'll be burn baby, burn.
Now it's Brazil's turn in the dirty energy spotlight. It seems the Brazilians figure that old Carbon Bubble has to burst sometime and they want to get as much of their fossil fuel reserves on the market before that happens.
Brazil is planning a fire-sale of its oil resources before shrinking global carbon budgets push down demand and prices, environmental groups have warned.
The focus of concern is a government proposal for up to $300bn in tax relief to companies that develop offshore oilfields that opponents claim would use up 7% of humanity’s emission budget if global warming is to be kept below 2C.
Climate Observatory, WWF, Greenpeace and other groups say the subsidies could spark a get-it-out-of-the-ground race with fossil fuel rivals such as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway and the UK.
The accusations contradict Brazil’s position at this week’s climate talks, where the country’s negotiators have urged the world to be more ambitious in cutting carbon emissions.
“The country is doing the exact opposite – increasing emissions and opening itself up to big oil with billionaire subsidies at a time when the country still tries to recover from its worst recession,” said Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of Climate Observatory.
3 comments:
A "get-it-out-of-the-ground race" will cause a glut of oil and depress prices. That will favour producers of light sweet crude, not bitumen. I hope Canadian governments don't get further into the subsidies game, and instead use the opportunity to wean us off oil production altogether.
Cap
Wishful thinking, Cap, but I share your hopes.
.. I feel monotonous.. harping about bitumin or dilbit .. pipelines
or fracking.. for LNG or shale oil..
and 'world oil prices' or discounted values
To pursue any of this .. and/or to prop up farmed salmon
.. means extirpation of a boatload of species ..
.. bye bye Orca, wild salmon, herring
I am in no way suggesting a catastrophic dilbit 'release'
could happen in 'tidewater' (euphamism for BC coastline)
and crash BC's coastal tourism industry
and any First Nation environments on the coast
& besides, the 'legacy' of ms Christy Clark
is the 'world class' clean up fable
Any political idiot should notice an additional
400 supertanker 'visits' equals 800 transits
Hey sports fans in order to leave, one must arrive
and that means sonar blasting away, blth ways
Its all about 'growing the economy'
and other well oiled dogma..
But the reality is poisoned waters
dead & extinct species
Take your pick.. but the 'reward' for Canada
is tailings ponds, leaking wells, methane escape
and shell companies that go bankrupt..
zero remediation of their destructive reality
Jason Kenney can spew otherwise..
but that is his plan for Alberta & BC
That is what Justin Trudeau is A-OK with
and so were Clark, Harper Inc..
.. the destruction of habitat will 'get the job done'
Stephen Harper, Ray Novak, Joe Oliver & Peter Kent
trashed protections of habitat & inland waters
just to make it easy for Big Oil.. Jim Flaherty
was their welcoming & attentive advocate
and electoral fraud.. omnibus bills greased the wheels
How do we allow this to happen ?
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