After the UK, Canada approves to drill more oil
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Bay du Nord in the Flemish Pass Basin is expected to cash in 300 million barrels of oil to Canada over 30 years.
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The Bay du Nord development concept. (Equinor)
Just yesterday, the United Kingdom announced its oil and gas drilling projects in the North Sea - which breaks the Paris agreement and will make it impossible to reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius global heating benchmark.
On Wednesday, the Canadian environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, approved an offshore oil project which is expected to extract 300 million oil barrels over the course of 30 years, significantly countering efforts to combat climate change.
Equinor, a Norwegian firm, proposed the development of oil exploration in the Flemish Pass Basin, which lies some 500 kilometers east of Newfoundland. The proposal passed an environmental assessment, according to a statement by the ministry.
The project, dubbed Bay du Nord, "is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects when mitigation measures are taken into account."
"The project is therefore allowed to proceed with strict measures to protect the environment," he said.
The Bay du Nord project has split among Trudeau's liberal supporters, as it poses an obstacle in alleviating the increasing heat and dealing with carbon emissions. The project is said to cash in $3.5 billion in revenue for the government.
Read more: Canada worst G7 member on climate
The decision on the project had been delayed twice after Trudeau's government last year ramped up its Paris Agreement target to reduce carbon emissions by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Environmental activists and organizations have condemned the decision, warning that excavating for more oil will cause permanent and irreversible damage to the climate.
"Approving Bay du Nord is another leap towards an unlivable future," Environmental Defence's Julia Levin said in a statement. "The decision is tantamount to denying that climate change is real and threatens our very existence."
The New Democratic Party, a leftist faction that has supported Trudeaus' governance, accused the Liberals of succumbing to "their corporate buddies from the oil and gas sector instead of listening to climate scientists."
"Under the Liberals, we have the worst record of any G7 country when it comes to emissions reductions, and we are the only country who has increased emissions every single year," the NDP said in a statement.
"With the approval of the Bay du Nord project, it's difficult to imagine this record will improve," it said.
