This week the Nova Scotia Advocate reported on efforts by German anti-fracking activists to stop the German government from giving a financial guarantee to Peridae, the company behind the Goldboro LNG proposal. This proposal includes an Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant designed to export LNG from Goldboro, Nova Scotia in Guysborough County.
Gastivist Berlin have written an open letter calling on the German government to halt this financial guarantee which reads: New gas infrastructure delays the switch to 100% renewable energies in Germany and abroad. Publicly funded investments in natural gas are at the expense of renewables and block the way to the energy transition, which must be implemented immediately. Investments should be made exclusively in renewable energy.
The Council of Canadians, Ecology Action Centre, NOFRAC, 350.org, Coule pas chez nous, and Responsible Energy Action are among the list of original signatories to this open letter. Since the letter has been made available online for members of the public to support, it has been signed by more than 15,000 people.
This project was recently approved by the provincial Utility and Review Board, and has long been approved by Nova Scotia Environment. According to CBC, “The company has proposed building a liquefaction plant for natural gas from the nearby Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline. Product would then be delivered to customers by ship.” This project is meant for LNG export, primarily to Europe. This is the motivation for the German government to back the project – to gain access to these LNG exports.
The next step necessary for the progression of this project is the financial guarantee from the German government. Ken Summers, member of NOFRAC and writer for the Nova Scotia Advocate, says that this is far from a done deal: the size and complexity of this project, and the lack of capacity in the regional natural gas network, leave a lot of work to be done before Peridae can demonstrate that it is worthy of such an investment.
In light of the impending climate crisis and recent IPCC report stating that we have only 12 years as a global community to drastically drop emissions and avoid irreversible climate change, it is wildly inappropriate for the Nova Scotian or German government to enable the fossil fuel development and expansion that Goldborough LNG represents. This LNG project has the potential to raise Nova Scotia’s emissions by nearly 25%. The Nova Scotia Advocate comments on that here, and you can read the Council of Canadians’ response to the IPCC report here.
Sign the open letter to stop the German government from funding Goldboro LNG here!
