{"id":9538,"date":"2018-05-15T09:37:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T13:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/?guid=1dd2a3fbf75773ee132192f8794887e8"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:37:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T13:37:31","slug":"arctic-oil-undrillable-amid-global-warming-uns-ex-climate-chief-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/05\/15\/arctic-oil-undrillable-amid-global-warming-uns-ex-climate-chief-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Arctic oil \u2018undrillable\u2019 amid global warming, UN\u2019s ex-climate chief warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OSLO &#8212; An architect of the Paris climate agreement urged governments on Tuesday to halt oil exploration in the Arctic, saying drilling was not economical and warming threatened the environmentally fragile region.<\/p>\n<p>Christiana Figueres, formerly head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat when the Paris accord was reached by almost 200 nations in 2015, told Reuters by telephone &#8220;the Arctic has been rendered undrillable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The past three years have been the hottest since records began in the 19th century, and Figueres said the heat was a threat to everything from Australia&#8217;s Great Barrier Reef to ice in Antarctica.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/senator-eyes-canada-oil-tax-after-alaska-drilling-clash-1\">Alaska wants to slap the oilsands with 9 cents a barrel tax \u2014 for revenge<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/transportation\/finland-feature\">Exposed in the north: Canada falls behind in developing the Arctic<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/how-can-we-develop-nwt-premier-wants-arctic-drilling-ban-lifted-to-boost-indigenous-communities\">\u2018The last frontier\u2019: Arctic drilling ban big blow to Northern Indigenous communities, premier says<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The former Costa Rican diplomat who campaigns for a peak in global emissions by 2020 said it made no economic sense to explore in the Arctic, partly because it was likely to take years to develop any finds.<\/p>\n<p>Capital investment would be better used developing renewable energies such as solar and wind to cut emissions, she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The stakes are visibly higher than they were just a few years ago,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Figueres will give a speech in Oslo on Tuesday at the Business for Peace Foundation, which seeks to promote ethical business practices.<\/p>\n<p>The Paris Agreement sets a goal of ending the fossil fuel era in the second half of this century. It has been weakened by a planned pullout by U.S. President Donald Trump, who doubts mainstream scientific findings that global warming is man-made.<\/p>\n<p>Many governments and companies favour Arctic drilling.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Trump&#8217;s administration began environmental reviews for oil and gas drilling in a section of the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n<p>In Norway, Statoil and other companies plan to keep up exploration in the Arctic Barents Sea, which is ice-free further north than other parts of the Arctic thanks to the warm Gulf Stream.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This area is actually less challenging in terms of weather and waves than many other parts of Norway &#8230; We have drilled more than 100 wells, and never had any significant accidents or discharges to sea,&#8221; Statoil spokesman B\u00e5rd Glad Pedersen said.<\/p>\n<p>Although Figueres said drilling in the Arctic did not make sense, Pedersen said the Johan Castberg field, due to start pumping in the early 2020s off north Norway, would have a break-even of US$31 a barrel.<\/p>\n<p>Global warming is also making the Arctic \u2014 shared by Nordic nations, Russia, Canada and the United States \u2014 more accessible to shipping and mineral exploration.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2018<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Paris climate accord architect is urging governments to halt oil exploration in the Arctic and focus on renewable energy instead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9539,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538\/revisions\/9539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}