en.Wedoany.com Reported - The government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, has approved Cenovus Energy's expansion of the White Rose oil field off the coast of St. John's, allowing its greenhouse gas emissions to increase by approximately 21%. According to documents obtained by the Canadian Press through access-to-information laws, Cenovus estimates that the new West White Rose platform, when operating at peak, will increase the field's emissions by around 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide—equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 23,300 cars.

The project is praised for creating hundreds of construction jobs and extending the oil field's life by 14 years, yet its climate impact has received less discussion. "Our interest in climate change and carbon reduction is waning… but we can't put climate change on hold. It will catch up with us, and it will hurt a lot," said Memorial University climate scientist Marilena Geng. Data shows extreme weather has already inflicted severe losses in Newfoundland, with Canada suffering $37 billion in insured losses from catastrophic weather events between 2016 and 2025.

Cenovus stated that the increased emissions are mainly from power generation, with the platform running primarily on natural gas and using diesel as a backup, and that it will comply with provincial environmental measures. Meanwhile, Vale Base Metals' Voisey's Bay nickel mine in Labrador has also been approved to raise its emission baseline, with emissions climbing from 2016 to 2024—more than doubling to over 180,000 metric tons—due to the transition to underground mining. Vale plans to build wind farms to reduce dependence on diesel power generation, but the project has yet to start. The company says its goal is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

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