Flaring. Woodfibre says its “harmless”.
You might have heard about it, you might not, but recently the medical journal Science published the article “Total organic carbon measurements reveal major gaps in petrochemical emissions reporting [Alberta Canada]”. Researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Yale University found that the emissions levels to be 20 to 64 times higher than was reported by the Alberta oil and gas industry.
You can say what you like, but this is not “estimates being a little off”. This is under-reporting of a level that can only be understood as deceit by the oil and gas industry.
Of course, this under-reporting is not new. We have seen similar under-reporting of emissions from methane leaking fracking wells. Wells that would also supply the local fossil fuel project under construction: Woodfibre LNG. Although the company didn’t include Scope 3 emissions in its 2023 “pathway to net-zero”, it mentioned it would work to decrease these up and downstream emissions. But how can you when the data is unreliable? That’s probably why we haven’t seen any plans.
All the while, Woodfibre LNG pigheadedly continues with the construction of its combined fossil fuel processing and LNG export facility. With that, planned flaring during operations has come into focus. Flaring is the burning of methane (natural gas) to lower pressure or to clear a system in case of maintenance, emergency, or tests.
To get a better understanding of the potential harm of this planned flaring at Woodfibre LNG for surrounding communities, Vancouver Coastal Health and scientists from four universities started a study - the first of its kind in Canada - last month. On the topic of flaring, the company has said that “It’s harmless.”
At Concerned Citizens Bowen, we are glad with this study, but that doesn’t mean that we accept the building of Woodfibre LNG. Our position remains that we shouldn’t be building new fossil fuel projects in a climate emergency. But somehow that’s what’s happening in Canada. It’s one of the reasons the country is consistently found in the bottom section of the Climate Change Performance Index (See https://ccpi.org/)
With our attention elsewhere, distracted by the current conflicts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, we might think climate change is on hold. On the contrary, with ocean temperatures rising to unprecedented levels, 2024 can become the year that changes everything.
Driving down the need for broader and faster paced investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and localizing economies is far greater than it was in 2015.
So let’s focus on just that.
- Anton van Walraven
