Canadian Green groups lobby embassies on EU fuel quality directive
Green groups lobby embassies on EU fuel
By Sneh Duggal
Published February 8, 2012
Environmentalists are taking the public relations war over the oil sands to embassies, furiously lobbying diplomats to counter the efforts of oil officials and the Harper government who are trying to reverse a European proposal to classify oil sands crude as particularly dirty.
By Feb. 3, representatives from the Council of Canadians, Climate Action Network Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network had met with officials from eight European Union embassies—Poland, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Germany—and the Norwegian embassy. They also plan to meet with Latvia, Denmark and others over the week of Feb. 6.
Their efforts come in advance of a Feb. 23 technical committee meeting of EU member state representatives that could hold a vote on the implementation of the revised Fuel Quality Directive.
The directive is part of the EU's effort to target climate change and reduce the emissions intensity of fuel in cars and other machinery. The European Commission revealed in October it had oil sands values in this directive, garnering praise from environmentalists but criticism from some in the oil industry—as well as Canada.
The reason the latter has complained is that if a plan to implement the directive is passed, it would see oil sands crude assigned a greenhouse gas intensity level larger than conventional crude oil—107 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of energy produced, compared to 87.5 grams.
Yet a vote on an implementation plan hasn't happened, despite a meeting in early December. Now, all eyes are on Feb. 23.
"We heard many embassies and ambassadors telling us that despite this heavy lobbying from the Canadian government, they had no doubt this policy was based on sound science and is a critical part of a suite of policies being implemented by the EU in the face of a climate crisis," said Hannah McKinnon, campaign director of Climate Action Network Canada.
Canada and the oil industry have been fighting back against the directive including oil sands crude since last fall, and have been intensely lobbying as well.
In October, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver went to London and Paris to meet with EU member states and tell them that the directive was "discriminatory."
"There are a number of European countries who have invested huge amounts of money in the oil sands in our energy projects; companies from England, France, the Netherlands, Norway...these are companies that could potentially be disadvantaged and countries who understand the issues," he said at the time.
The government has since been "engaging European officials to communicate our concerns with the proposed Fuel Quality Directive," wrote Katie McDougald, spokesperson for Mr. Oliver, in an email.
We hope that the EU will change course and ensure that oil sands crude is treated fairly with other heavy crudes," Ms. McDougald wrote.
As well, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the oil sands' primary lobby group, met with some European missions in November, said spokesperson Travis Davies.
CAPP has discussed the fuel quality directive with officials from the German, French, Netherlands, Norwegian and Italian embassies and the British High Commission during meetings with these missions, Mr. Davies said.
"With the exception of Italy, all those groups we meet with on a regular basis ... it was an annual check-in type thing, [the fuel quality directive] would have been a part of the meeting."
An official at the German Embassy told Embassy that lobbying efforts seem to have slowed down the process for moving ahead on the directive.
If passed, the implementation plan would then go to the European Parliament.
But Ms. McKinnon said she doesn't think a vote will happen at the upcoming meeting. She said the European Commission would likely take as much time as it needs to address any concerns of member states to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
A Nov. 27 article in the Guardian claimed that the UK government was giving "secret support" to Canadian efforts against the fuel quality directive.
The environmental groups issued an invitation to all EU embassies, said Andrea Harden-Donahue, energy and climate justice campaigner for the Council of Canadians.
But, much to the disappointment of the three groups, the British High Commission turned down their invitation to meet.
Head of media and public affairs Nathan Skolski wrote in an email to Embassy that the mission declined the offer because "the Fuel Quality Directive is not a Canada-UK bilateral issue, it is an issue between Canada and the European Union. As such, our policy is to direct all concerns of this type to the EU delegation in Ottawa."
Mr. Skolski said the government's aim is to drive down emissions from transport fuels, and it wants to use the directive as a key tool to achieve this.
sduggal@embassymag.ca
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