Canada's PM Carney Says No Decision Made on Lifting Arctic Offshore Drilling Ban
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Montreal, Quebec, on November 10 that his government has not made a decision about lifting Canada's decade-long moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. Carney said a budget item of C$11 million in funding over four years in last week's federal budget is absolutely not, in any way, a decision about lifting the moratorium.
Canada's moratorium on Arctic offshore oil and gas exploration has been in place since 2016, when then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to impose it to protect the region's fragile marine ecosystem from the risk of oil spills. The policy is set to expire in 2028 and is reviewed every five years.
A Canadian newspaper had reported on November 9 that Carney's government is considering lifting the ban, quoting a Department of Finance official. The Finance Department referred questions to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, which did not immediately respond. Carney's November 10 remarks were the Canadian government's public clarification of that report.
(Source: Prime Minister of Canada)
Source: Prime Minister of Canada
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加拿大国家站图库图片（GSM 图库复用，图档 d20261022-gap-arctic1.jpg）。原图为公共领域/CC 授权图，原始图注存于本站图库首发记录，发布前请主线复核图注与授权。 / Photo: GSM country-station library image reused from d20261022-gap-arctic1.jpg; public-domain/CC-licensed original, credit on file in the GSM image library, to be re-checked before publication.
