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 December 9, 2008, Special Action Issue! 
Tar Sands Sign-On Letter
To: All NGO and Indigenous Organizations
From: Organizations at the Poznan Climate Conference

Re: Visit of Rob Renner, Alberta Environment Minister to Poznan Climate Conference                                                     

  1. Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner is visiting the United Nations Climate Conference in Poznan Poland in order to promote and defend the tar sands – the world's dirtiest oil.
  2. Click Here to download sign-on letter (PDF). We are seeking ORGANIZATIONAL endorsements – not individual endorsements.
  3. Please provide us with (a) the name of your organization; (b) contact person; (c) e-mail; and (d) telephone number
Please send this information to Montana Burgess:
mburgess@climateactionnetwork.ca
  1. DEADLINE FOR ENDORSEMENT IS WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10 20:00 HRS (POZNAN TIME)
  2. The letter will be released to media in Poznan; Canada; and United States on the morning of Thursday December 11, 2008. A brief media advisory will be attached to the letter. 

If you would like to be listed as available for media comment, please let Montana know and be sure to provide e-mail and phone.
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS REQUEST MESSAGE WIDELY!

We have included the text of the PDF below - If you are not able to open the PDF, copy and paste into a text document, add your information, save and email to: mburgess@climateactionnetwork.ca

December 11, 2008

The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister of the Environment, Canada
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec Canada K1A 0H3

The Honourable Rob Renner
Minister of Environment, Alberta
#425 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5K 2B6

Dear Minister Prentice and Minister Renner:

Our organizations and Indigenous Peoples are participating in the United Nations climate change talks in Poznan, Poland, and we represent concerned citizens around the world. We are writing to protest your promotion of the world’s dirtiest oil—the Canadian tar sands. Tar sands oil production generates 3-5 times as much greenhouse gas as conventional oil due to the massive amounts of energy needed to extract, upgrade and refine the oil. The tar sands are becoming internationally known as a form of development that is violating the human rights of Indigenous Peoples of Alberta, Canada.

Emissions from tar sands are so much greater than conventional oil, that producing more of this oil will significantly undermine the global commitment to combat climate change.

While climate negotiators from around the world gather in Poznan to discuss the steps necessary to curb global climate change, the Canadian federal government has set a target that is less than 3% below 1990 levels by 2020 C a target that falls far short of the level needed for Canada to do its fair share in avoiding dangerous climate change. But if Alberta increases its emissions as planned, it would make it extremely difficult for Canada to reach even that inadequate national emissions target.

Alberta intends to allow its emissions to remain well above the 1990 level (and above the Kyoto target level) as late as 2050 – while climate science shows that industrialized countries need to reduce their emissions by at least 80% during the same period.

Time is limited and we need action now. The bottom line is that as ministers charged with protecting the environment, it is your responsibility to put the brakes on tar sands expansion. This is vital in order to make progress on climate change both globally and in Canada. At the Poznan conference, Canada has been vilified for trying to justify a less aggressive emissions target because of tar sands production for export.

Thankfully, Canada has multiple opportunities to reign in its emissions and to end its status as a laggard in the climate negotiations. The single most important domestic policy option to pursue is an economy-wide price on greenhouse gas emissions that reaches $50/tonne in 2010 and increases quickly thereafter.

Canada’s Climate Change Opportunities

Alberta is already Canada's global warming capital – producing 30 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gases, but having only ten per cent of the population. Alberta has an opportunity to become a clean energy superpower. Green economic stimulus providing support for sustainable energy could help diversify Alberta’s economy and take advantage of the province’s significant renewable energy resources. A recent economic assessment demonstrates that Canada is fully capable of doing its fair share in avoiding dangerous climate change while maintaining a healthy level of economic and employment growth.1

Tar Sands Oil: Environmental Disaster
  • In Canada, an area the size of Florida could be directly affected by strip mining and drilling for the tar-like substance that is turned into synthetic crude oil.
  • The tar sands are the fastest growing single point source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada.
  • Production is expected to grow from the current 1.2 million barrels of oil per day to between three and five million barrels per day by 2020.
  • Currently tar sands are responsible for 40 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions; nearly the emissions of the Czech Republic – and may double by 2015.
  • By 2020 tar sands GHGs are projected to increase to 141 million tonnes, double the current emissions of all cars and trucks in Canada.
  • Producing oil from tar sands uses three to five barrels of water to get a barrel of oil. Tar sands production is licensed to use more water a day than Alberta's two major cities--- Calgary and Edmonton---combined.
  • Every day tar sands producers burn 600 million cubic feet of natural gas to produce tar sands oil, enough natural gas to heat three million Canadian homes.
  • Tailings ponds adjacent to rivers, that already cover 50 square kilometers, pose an enormous threat of contamination of fresh water and destruction of wildlife.
  • Tar sands are located in Alberta’s northern boreal forest, part of the world’s largest terrestrial storehouse of climate regulating carbon and the home of millions of songbirds and waterfowl.
  • Indigenous communities are most at risk of health effects because they eat food from the land and water. The remote Fort Chipewyan community has an 80% subsistence diet. Many Fort Chipewyan residents are concerned that toxics from tar sands mining are contributing to recent increases in diseases and cancers in the community and region.

Taken together, it becomes clear why Canada’s tar sands have been called the most destructive project on earth. In the interest of protecting the planet for our children, we urge you to reign in this destructive industry.

Sincerely,
[Organization; contact person; email; telephone]
The Indigenous Environmental Network · PO Box 485 · Bemidji · MN · 56619
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