Today Pieridae Energy announced that they are giving up on their Goldboro LNG project. The company says it will ”analyze strategic alternatives” to the Goldboro LNG project in Nova Scotia, and will look at options that are “more compatible with the current environment.”
This is a huge win for the thousands of people who have been resisting this dangerous LNG project since its inception in 2013 – this includes Mi’kmaq water protectors, the Council of Canadians members, and climate justice activists. Credit to this win goes to every single person who took action to protect the land, water, and climate from this project – every op-ed, FOIPOP, interview, meeting, phone call, town hall, rally, and ceremony mattered!
Social movements have been organizing to stop this dangerous project for more than eight years, and the climate justice movement has been working to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure for even longer. Organizers and activists saw the hollowness of key claims that made Goldboro LNG palatable to the public – claims of net-zero emissions, reconciliation, and economic development that were nothing of the sort – and challenged them intentionally.
After local activists revealed that Pieridae Energy had asked the federal government for nearly a billion dollars, The Council of Canadians worked for the last few months to pressure MPs and ministers to reject that funding request. This was a direct confrontation with the idea that this project was a good investment for the economy. If it was such a good economic opportunity, why did it need to be subsidized by taxpayer dollars?
Indigenous women across Mi’kma’ki and all of Turtle Island have led the way in imagining and creating sustainable economies that take care of people and the land, and have been important teachers in showing settler communities the connections between resource extraction, climate justice, and Indigenous rights and sovereignty.
Goldboro LNG is widely opposed by grassroots Mi’kmaq women and their organizations. Over the years of this project’s existence, Mi’kmaq women spoke out about the risks associated with bringing a work camp into Mi’kma’ki, and about the harm this project would do to the lands. More recently, the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association issued a media release opposing the Goldboro LNG project, and the Assembly of NS Mi’kmaw Chiefs issued a statement supporting concerns raised by the community.
Legislation and new climate targets are passing in many jurisdictions across Canada, thanks to movements organizing to push governments to do so. Canada just passed the Net-Zero Climate Accountability Act, which requires the federal government make a real plan to reduce emission to net zero by 2050. Again, the ability to pass legislation like this shows that people are ready for real climate action.
This doesn’t mean our fight stops here. We need to continue to push our governments for our communities to be part of the new green economy that we are asking for. This is your win, and there is more work to do to push for an economy that is for our people, our planet, and our democracy.
Further analysis on the Goldboro LNG project to come…
