Victoria's Green Matters - 8th Dec 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

Canada has the second largest store of carbon in the world after Saudi Arabia. These are tar or oil sands from which oil can be extracted. The process by which this oil is extracted is extremely polluting, being very energy intensive with high greenhouse gas emissions, the destruction of forests and the contamination of air and water.

The European Union (EU) proposes to designate transport fuel from tar sands as producing 22% more greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fuels, thus discouraging suppliers who need to reduce their emissions by 10% by 2020, from using it. This would also label the fuel as ‘dirtier’.

Canada has been running a campaign against the EU proposals and the UK government has been lobbied by oil giants Shell and BP, which both have large tar sands projects in Canada. Embarrassingly for the UK, David Cameron has discussed the issue with his Canadian counterpart, stating that he wanted to find a way forward. The opposition to the EU proposal puts the UK in the minority in Europe and will cause great concern at the climate change talks in Durban.

At a time when we need to be reducing our use of fossil fuels and cutting our carbon emissions, the UK government is actively involved in trying to avoid probable EU sanctions against tar sand oil. Far from being the ‘greenest government ever’ it is guilty of putting big business first over the needs of the planet.