LNG Harms Canadian’s Health and Our Climate
LNG Harms Our Climate
We’re likely in the worst-ever wildfire season in Canada yet our governments are planning to make the climate crisis worse. LNG is unlikely to replace coal overseas; analysts confirm that renewable energy – not LNG – is the biggest competitor to coal in both China and India. Methane is the main component of LNG and it’s 80 times more powerful at warming the climate than carbon pollution. Indeed, LNG can emit about as much greenhouse gas (GHG) as coal.
LNG Canada will release 4 mega tonnes (Mt) of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year for at least 25 years. This is equivalent to adding one million vehicles to Canadian streets every year for 25 years. Based on GHG emission estimates, at least 38 Mt of CO2e per year will be released if all of the exported gas is burned.
Fossil fuels, including fracked British Columbian gas, are among the biggest drivers of climate change. Fossil fuels account for over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Fossil fuel production and burning are drivers of climate-related events such as wildfires, heatwaves, and severe storms.
Thirteen ‘Canadian’ oil and gas companies, including five of the six that make up the Pathways Alliance oil sands lobby group, are on the list of 88 big carbon polluters called out for a major share of the forested lands lost to wildfires in North America between 1986 and 2021.
With climate change, BC is experiencing unprecedented droughts and climate change. Expanding LNG will require massive amounts of water, competing with needs including hydro, agriculture and fighting fires. Our water resources can’t be taken for granted. In 2023, the province became a net energy importer, importing a fifth of the energy needed, costing more than $450 trillion with energy bills rising in 2024 as a result.
Canada has very high per capita emissions relative to other countries, and historical emissions, but our country’s failure to meet emissions targets is not individuals’ fault, this failure is the fault of large oil and gas companies which fail to act. We can’t ask other people with much lower per capita emissions to act on climate change if we don’t act now to go renewable here in Canada as they are already.
Workers are NOT to blame, but the executives and lobbyists at the top of oil and gas companies are definitely to blame. Being dependent upon oil and gas does not mean you can’t call for systemic changes to end that dependence and hold the oil & gas industry responsible for decades of lies that made things much worse.
Other Questions and Answers:
- Which jurisdictions produce LNG?
British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in Canada where LNG export projects are underway. There are six projects in various stages of permitting or construction. The first project – LNG Canada – begins operations in July 2025 in Kitimat, BC. It is a foreign-owned joint venture of Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Korea Gas. - What is the connection between LNG and pipelines?
Pipelines are a ground transportation system for gas. Pipelines for LNG are very long because they are the ground transportation that moves gas fracked in northeastern BC’s Montney Formation to LNG facilities for export.
- Are there buyers for BC’s LNG?
See above for why the demand for LNG is going to decline and why new LNG projects are not needed. The reality for BC LNG is that the majority of the contracted buyers are portfolio players. These are trading houses that buy and then resell the LNG they purchase. Because portfolio players have no fixed destination for the LNG they purchase, they are motivated to resell the product to the highest bidders.
Photos below of a 2025 protest against fracking in Nova Scotia with over 500 people in attendance.