Last week, two of the world’s leading scientists travelled to Europe to counter some of the outrageous lobbying coming from the tar sands industry and the Canadian government against EU climate legislation. The trip, by US climate expert Jim Hansen and Canadian environmental economist Mark Jaccard, included giving evidence to the European Parliament, meetings with national governments, and plenty of media coverage making the point that the tar sands need to stay in the ground. The trip appeared to spur the Canadians into sending their second Minister to Europe in two weeks, giving us the opportunity for a quick protest in Brussels. Perhaps most importantly, the visit prompted the revelation in the Guardian that the UK government is now supporting an approach to the Fuel Quality Directive that treats tar sands as no more polluting than conventional fuel.
See http://www.no-tar-sands.org/2013/05/uks-pro-tar-sands-stance-exposed-and-showdown-with-shell/.