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Specifically, the B.C. government’s justification to proceed with Site C on the grounds that it will provide “clean” hydroelectricity ignores the scientific and moral case that we shouldn’t wreck the environment and ignore Indigenous Peoples and their human rights in the fight against climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement, of which Canada is a signatory, clearly states that actions to address climate change must be consistent with government “obligations on human rights”, including “the rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Local First Nations, whose ancestral lands will be flooded if Site C is completed and operating, have entrenched constitutional rights to hunt, trap and fish under Treaty 8 — a Peace and Friendship Treaty signed in 1899. These rights will be effectively meaningless if the Site C dam is completed. Vast areas of traditional territories will be underwater and First Nations will no longer be able to live off healthy populations of wild game, fish and plants as they did for thousands of years before they signed Treaty 8.

Furthermore, claims that large hydro dams, like Site C, are an important source of “clean-energy” going forward are outdated. In fact, several decades of scientific studies of reservoirs show that at best, large dams release greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equivalent to generating the same electricity using natural gas. At worst, they generate as much GHG as burning coal. This is because flooding forests and other natural areas that take up greenhouse gases changes them to decaying masses of plant material on the reservoir bottom, releasing both carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. In addition, the concrete and steel that must be manufactured and the energy required for transportation and construction of dams and transmission infrastructure add GHG.