“The decision whether Europe will officially label oil produced from tar sands as highly polluting will be made on Thursday.”
The Guardian reports:
A fierce battle over whether the European Union will officially label oil produced from tar sands as highly polluting comes to a head on Thursday with a crucial vote.
The issue is seen as a key test of the EU’s ability to implement its climate change policies against pressure from the Canadian government and oil companies’ ability to prevent billions of barrels of tar sands oil being designated as especially harmful to the environment. The lobbying has been intense, with Canada secretly threatening a trade war with Europe if the proposal is passed. The Nasa climate scientist James Hansen has said full development of the tar sands would mean it was “game over” for the climate.
The issue has also drawn fire on to the UK’s transport minister, Norman Baker, whose Liberal Democrat colleagues have likened tar sands to “land mines, blood diamonds and cluster bombs”, but whose coalition government was revealed as giving secret help to Canada… [Emphasis added]