CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, COUNCIL OF CANADIANS, ECOJUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, KEEPERS OF THE WATER, LEADNOW, STAND.EARTH

The groups are delivering petitions today, with a total of 32,220 signatures, asking that the federal government ban all coal exports by 2023.

Ottawa | Unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – As world leaders  gather in Glasgow for COP26, the UN climate conference, organizations from across Canada are calling on the government to accelerate its promise to ban all thermal coal exports by 2023 instead of 2030.

Today, these groups are delivering multiple petitions to the Prime Minister’s Office, with more than 30,000 signatories demanding immediate action to phase out thermal coal exports from and through Canada by 2023. (To view photos from the petition delivery, click here after 10am ET).

The overarching aim for COP26 is to “keep 1.5 degrees alive.” Rapidly ending coal power — the single largest source of global temperature increase — is a critical step the world must take to achieve the 1.5-degree goal.

The petitions, collected and submitted by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Council of Canadians, Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Keepers of the Water, LeadNow, and Stand.Earth, call for the federal government to commit to an accelerated coal export ban during the COP26 conference.

“Canada wants to be a global climate leader but continues to mine and export thermal coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel,” said Julia Levin, Senior Climate and Energy Program Manager at Environmental Defence. “Coal causes serious health impacts to people and communities where it is mined, transported and burned, while its massive emissions are terrible for the planet. With world leaders gathered at COP26, we are calling on the Government of Canada to honour their commitment to a greener future by making coal a relic of the past.”

During the election campaign, the government pledged to end the export of thermal coal. However, the timeline they set for themselves – 2030 – is not commensurate with the urgency of the climate crisis.

“As a co-founder of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, Canada cannot credibly ask other countries to move beyond coal while it continues to export thermal coal overseas,” Fraser Thomson, lawyer at Ecojustice said. “Banning thermal coal exports by 2023 would show that Canada is serious about helping the world power past coal.”

While the federal government has committed to ending coal-fired power generation by 2030, Canada continues to facilitate the burning of coal overseas through its exports. Each year, the country exports 15-18 million tons of Canadian and American thermal coal. Once consumed, this amount can produce between 33-40 million tonnes of CO2e every year, the equivalent of approximately eight million passenger vehicles.

“As an Indigenous-led organization, we reject false solutions and delay tactics in addressing the climate crisis,” said Jesse Cardinal, Executive Director of Keepers of the Water. “Canada’s posturing as an opponent to coal while it continues to export this fossil fuel elsewhere is one such tactic. All parts of Mother Earth are interconnected. Burning coal anywhere is a threat to the health of the whole planet.”

Thermal coal is the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, generating half of the world’s carbon emissions, accelerating the climate crisis, wreaking havoc on the environment, and causing at least 800,000 deaths every year.

“We have recognized here at home that we should not subject communities to the health impacts from burning coal for electricity, which include asthma, cancer, brain damage, and premature death,” said Anjali Helferty, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. “If we claim to value the health and lives of people around the world, we cannot continue to export coal overseas.”

“Canada must stop enabling emissions through its coal exports,” added Christina Kruszewski, the Prairies-NWT Regional Organizer at the Council of Canadians. “We’ve already seen unprecedented grassroots opposition to coal mining over the last year and a half, particularly in Alberta. We know all about the impacts of coal mining on Indigenous rights, communities, water, and the climate. Now is the time to move Canada beyond coal for good.”

– 30 –

For media inquiries, please contact:

Thais Freitas
Communications Specialist, Ecojustice
1-800-926-7744, ext. 277, tfreitas@ecojustice.ca

Alex Ross
Senior Communications Coordinator, Environmental Defence
647-546-3239, aross@environmentaldefence.ca

Donya Ziaee
Communications Officer, The Council of Canadians
613-404-2004, media@canadians.org

Pamela Daoust
National Communications Director, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
514-267-2589, pamela@cape.ca