New tool measures real-world impacts of fossil fuel projects like N.L’s Bay du Nord

Halifax - Australian researchers have created the world's first public tool for assessing the real-world impacts of fossil-fuel projects, using a Canadian offshore oil project as a test subject. The Carbon Impacts Tracer calculates the emissions from individual projects, then links those emissions to specific climate change effects like global temperature rise, coral reef loss, food production drops, and job losses.

Researchers say the tool can link a proposed project's emissions to the temperature increase it will cause, as well as the human and ecological harm that results. The tool was launched Monday with case studies of five Australian projects, one in the UK, and Canada's proposed Bay du Nord offshore oil project. If built, Bay du Nord would be Canada's first deepwater oil project, located about 500 kilometers east of St. John's, NL.

The tool estimates CO2 emissions from Bay du Nord could be 188 megatonnes over 20 years, contributing a global temperature increase of 0.00008 C. It also predicts the project would expose over 111,000 more people to unprecedented heat and cause 25 more heat-related deaths in Europe alone. The tool could help governments, regulators, and the public understand the real-world impacts of proposed projects, potentially strengthening climate litigation efforts.