Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in London today to address MPs in Parliament ahead of the G8 summit – the first time in nearly 70 years the honour has been extended to a Canadian leader.

But his visit will be greeted by anti-tar sands protests backed by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign – and an Early Day Motion from MPs calling on the UK government to support EU legislation discouraging future tar sands imports.

Concern in the UK over the impact of tar sands extraction has grown steadily, with the oil source being branded as 'game over for the climate' by top climate scientist James Hansen, due to the vast potential reserves of this unconventional fuel, and its carbon-intensive extraction process.

Locally, new extraction projects are being opposed by First Nations suffering their ill-effects, such as the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Beaver Lake Cree.

There are strong opposition movements to opening up the tar sands to new markets via pipelines such as the Keystone XL in the States and the Enbridge Northern Gateway in British Columbia.

Stephen Harper is the latest in a string of Canadian politicians to come to Europe, partly with the aim of lobbying against a piece of EU climate legislation, the Fuel Quality Directive, which could label the tar sands as more polluting than conventional oil and discourage its future import, closing off Europe as a desperately-needed potential market.

The Early Day Motion, tabled by Green MP Caroline Lucas with cross party support, criticises the recent barrage of lobbying from Canada and the oil industry, particularly UK oil giants Shell and BP, and calls on the UK government to support the legislation in an EU vote later this year.

Caroline Lucas MP said:

“Tar sands oil is one of the dirtiest, most polluting fuels out there and the extraction process causes environmental destruction an almost unimaginable scale.

“Indigenous communities in Canada and elsewhere are now speaking out about the human and ecological rights violations and economic devastation being inflicted by companies like Shell who are hell-bent on extracting tar sands at any cost.

“David Cameron must make it clear to the Canadian Prime Minister during his visit to the UK that such dirty fuels have no place in the UK or Europe, and UK Ministers must commit to supporting proposals to label tar sands oil as more carbon intensive than other fuels through the EU Fuel Quality Directive.

“If this Government is serious about tackling climate change, it should do its utmost to drive investment in clean fuels, low carbon transport and improved efficiency - and ensure that tar sands and other unconventional fossil fuels stay in the ground.”

Jess Worth, from UK Tar Sands Network, said:

“This week, the International Energy Agency warned that we cannot burn two thirds of known fossil fuels if we are to avoid runaway climate change.

“The tar sands should be top of the list to leave in the ground. Instead, Harper's government has been trying to foist its dirty product on Europe by spreading misinformation and lobbying against climate legislation that would discourage tar sands imports.

“The Coalition government should be ashamed of itself for bestowing such an honour on a man who is scuppering climate action abroad and trampling over Indigenous rights and environmental protection at home.”

ENDS

Notes:

1) The EDM is being co-sponsored by: Caroline Lucas MP (Green), Martin Horwood MP (Liberal Democrat), Martin Caton MP (Labour), Mark Durkan MP (Social Democratic and Labour Party), Margaret Ritchie MP (Social Democratic and Labour Party). The full text:

That this House notes that oil from tar sands produces on average 23% 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 6% 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; 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 2 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.