Construction of the shale oil plant continues.

Content of the court case

The climate impact of the shale oil plant has not been considered. When establishing the zoning plan and granting the construction permit, the impact of the oil plant on climate was assessed inadequately, and the best scientific knowledge about the seriousness of climate change was not considered. The carbon emissions resulting from burning the oil produced in the oil factory were not even calculated before the permit was issued. Despite the fact that the operation of the shale oil plant and burning the oil produce carbon emissions equivalent to one tenth of the emissions of Estonia, the municipality of Narva-Jõesuu did not determine whether it was legal to allow such emissions from an environmental standpoint.

Constructing the shale oil plant stops Estonia from fulfilling the Paris Agreement. By signing the Paris Agreement, Estonia committed to efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C. As a relatively prosperous and highly developed country, Estonia also agreed to reduce its carbon emissions faster than the world average. The actions of the next decade determine whether it is possible to keep global warming under 1.5°C. However, by constructing and operating the shale oil plant, Estonia adds 1.6 million tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere each year – or a tenth of its national emissions. That is precisely the opposite of what we should be doing. Climate change had already become a grave global threat by the spring of 2020, so the municipality of Narva-Jõesuu must have known that when it comes to limiting dangerous global warming, every shale oil plant matters.

The shale oil plant is in conflict with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Climate change threatens people’s lives, health, and food security worldwide. As climate change intensifies, inequality increases, because the most vulnerable and marginalized people are the least protected in the face of extreme weather. In fact, one of the Sustainable Development Goals is taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Constructing the shale oil plant exacerbates climate change and thus hinders the achievement of all sustainable development goals worldwide.

The decisions regarding the construction of the shale oil plant was based on outdated development documents. When granting the construction permit for the shale oil plant, the municipality of Narva-Jõesuu found – without any substantive analysis – that the plant was in line with development documents such as “The fundamental elements of Estonia’s climate policy for 2050”, “National Energy and Climate Plan 2030”, and “Estonia’s energy development plan to 2030”. However, by the time the decision was made, these documents had essentially become outdated. The fundamental elements of Estonia’s climate policy did not even include a target of climate neutrality, which is necessary to fulfill the Paris Agreement.

Therefore, when granting the construction permit, it was not sufficient to rely on the fact that building the shale oil plant was in accordance with these outdated documents. Instead, the decision should have been based on Estonia’s actual obligations to combat climate change.