Eight Nobel Peace Laureates sent a letter to European Union Heads of State today, urging them to support new policy prohibiting highly polluting oil produced from tar sands. The European Union Environment Commissioner has proposed a policy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport fuels consumed in Europe. The policy currently recognizes that tar sands oil causes more greenhouse gas pollution than conventional oil, and they are seeking final approval from the members of the European Union.

In the letter the Laureates urge the heads of state to support the policy, in spite of lobbying from the oil industry and the Canadian government to weaken it.

View a PDF of the letter.

Read the text of the letter below.

We—a group of Nobel Peace Laureates—are writing today to ask you to do the right thing for our environment and support the European Commission’s effort to keep highly polluting tar sands oil out of Europe.

Climate change is the gravest threat to the wellbeing of our planet. We now stand at a turning point.  The Fuel Quality Directive proposed by the European Commission is an example of a policy that, if implemented properly, can move us away from our destructive dependence on oil, coal and natural gas to renewable energy sources and clean transportation sources.  It is designed to help Europeans make cleaner fuel choices.

Tar sand development is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, and threatens the health of the planet.  As the tar sands have contributed to rising emissions, Canada recently stepped away from the Kyoto Protocol.  Europe must not follow in Canada’s footsteps.

Dr. James Hansen, at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has said that unrestricted exploitation of high carbon tar sand oil would mean “game over for the climate”.

Large reserves of tar sands exist in Canada, Madagascar, Russia and Venezuela.  In Canada, production of tar sand oil is not only contributing to climate change, but is also causing widespread environmental damage and harm to local people and aboriginal communities.  The production process has polluted the Athabasca River, poisoned the air with toxins and turned farmland into wasteland.  Large areas of the boreal forest have been cut down to make way for tar sand mining.

For these reasons we commend President Obama’s decision to reject the proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have dramatically increased the amount of tar sands oil produced and transported from Canada to the United States.

We urge you to support the European Commission’s proposal and say no to highly polluting tar sands oil—in favor of cleaner fuels.

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976)—Ireland

Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976)—Ireland

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate (1980)—Argentina

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate (1984)—South Africa

Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Nobel Peace Laureate (1992)—Guatemala

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1997)—USA

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Laureate (2003)—Iran