Tar Sands And The Fuel Quality Directive

EDM number 240 in 2013-14, proposed by Caroline Lucas on 12/06/2013.
Categorised under the topics of Climate change and Oil, petrol and natural gas.

That this House notes that oil from tar sands produces on average 23 per cent more carbon emissions than conventional fuels from extraction to consumption, according to peer reviewed scientific analysis from Stanford University; further notes that tar sands exploitation causes severe local environmental harm including deforestation and pollution, which threatens the lives and livelihoods of indigenous communities; supports the EU's modest aim of reducing emissions from transport fuels by six per cent by 2020 through the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD); considers accurate labelling in the FQD of oil from unconventional fuels as more carbon-intensive than conventional oil to be a sensible measure; believes that this labelling would discourage the import of unconventional fuels such as tar sands oil into Europe and contribute to the shift to cleaner fuels; further notes that the exploitation of unconventional fossil fuels is incompatible with the achievement of the UK Government's repeated commitment to keep global warming below a two degree increase and thus to avoid catastrophic climate change; is concerned at the intensive lobbying against accurate labelling of unconventional fuels in the FQD from the Canadian government and British oil companies with tar sands interests such as Shell and BP; and urges the Government to support proposals for separate default values for unconventional fuels, including oil shale and tar sands, during negotiations and in the vote in the EU Council of Ministers later this year.

This motion has been signed by a total of 33 MPs.