On October 27, 2016, the NGO SkeenaWild Conservation Trust filed an application for judicial review of the Canadian Minister for Environment's decision to approve the Pacific Northwest LNG Project. The project consisted of a natural gas liquefaction facility and export terminal on Lelu Island. If built, the claimants alleged that the project would have significant impacts on the salmon population in the Skeena watershed and would be one of Canada's largest single point source emitters of greenhouse gas (GHG). The claimants alleged that the decision to approve the project was based on a flawed environmental impact assessment that failed to adequately consider, among other things, the cumulative environmental impacts of the projects GHG emissions. The claimants relied on the precautionary principle in their submissions, among other issues.

The case was withdrawn after Petronas, the primary project proponent, <a href="https://www.petronas.com/media/press-release/petronas-and-partners-will-not-proceed-pacific-northwest-lng-project">withdrew</a> from the project in July 2016 citing changes in market conditions.

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust v. Government of Canada

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust v. Government of Canada - application

Filed

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust v. Government of Canada - application

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector