Trudeau asked for it. Trump will approve it. Our climate is going to get it.
The Keystone XL pipeline will enable up to fifty million additional tonnes of fossil carbon to be dug out of Alberta's bitumen deposit each year. That will dump another 195 million tonnes of climate pollution per year1 into our already destabilized climate.
For comparison, that exceeds the combined emissions from the 100 least climate polluting nations.2
Should Canada be pursuing Keystone XL at this point in the climate crisis? And should the Trudeau government approve yet another gigantic pipeline, in addition to Keystone XL — the bitterly opposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion to Vancouver's shores?
Take a look at the comparison between KXL and 100 nations below and decide for yourself.
![Keystone XL pipeline oil vs combined emissions from 100 nations Keystone XL pipeline oil vs combined emissions from 100 nations](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_width_lg_1x/public/img/2016/11/17/kxl-v-100-nations.jpg?itok=-cYPbsNZ)
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Footnotes
- Keystone XL has a stated capacity of 890,000 barrels a day. That's 325 million barrels per year. Environment Canada estimates 90 kgCO2 is emitted to extract each barrel of bitumen. A study by Oil Change International estimates 520 kgCO2 is released when each barrel of bitumen is burned. That's approximately 600 kgCO2/bbl in total. Multiplied by 325mbbls = 195 million tonnes of CO2 will be spilled into the air each year from this bitumen.
- According to the EDGAR database, the 100 least climate polluting nations emitted a combined 184 MtCO2 in 2014. These nations are:
Albania
American Samoa
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Botswana
British Virgin Islands
Burkina Faso
Burundi
C. African Republic
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cayman Islands
Chad
China, Macao
Comoros
Congo
Cook Islands
D. R. Congo
Djibouti
Dominica
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Fiji
French Guiana
French Polynesia
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Gibraltar
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Iceland
Kiribati
Laos
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Montserrat
Mozambique
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
Nicaragua
Niger
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Puerto Rico
Réunion
Rwanda
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Pierre & Miquelon
Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome & Principe
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Suriname
Swaziland
Tajikistan
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
US Virgin Islands
Vanuatu
Western Sahara
Zambia
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