As International Leaders Wrap Up Global Biodiversity Framework Negotiations at COP15, Water Protectors and Advocates Call for the Immediate Shut Down of Line 5

Montreal, Canada -- As negotiations on a new 10-year plan to reverse the accelerating loss of life on Earth wrap up at the 15th UN Conference of Parties (COP15), Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline continues to threaten biodiversity, health, and climate. Throughout COP15 in Montreal, water protectors and environmental advocates from the United States and Canada amplified the extraordinary threat Enbridge’s fossil fuel infrastructure poses to the Great Lakes and inherent Indigenous rights. As COP15 comes to a close, these advocates are calling on President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau to recognize the alarming impact Line 5 has on biodiversity and commit to shutting down the pipeline. 

Throughout COP15, Sierra Club joined bi-national and multi-state partners to amplify the threat Line 5 poses to biodiversity through a variety of grassroots and educational events, including: 

• The March for Biodiversity and Human Rights, which demonstrated binational support for protecting biodiversity, respecting Indigenous peoples’, and fighting for human rights.
• The Teach-In: “Fighting Canadian Fossil Fuel Infrastructures in the US and Canada,” which educated participants about the fight against Canadian fossil fuel infrastructures and explored ideas around how to phase out this infrastructure on both sides of the border.
• Water protectors, experts, and environmental advocates participated in a press conference to amplify the threat Enbridge’s pipelines pose to ⅕ of the world’s fresh water and tribal rights. Speakers included:
  • Travis Boissoneau, Lake Huron Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief for the Anishinaabek Nation
  • Aurora Conley, Community and Staff member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
  • Tessine Murji, Sierra Club Illinois Organizer
  • Don Waller, Great Lakes Biologist and Retired Professor from the University of Wisconsin Madison
  • Michelle Woodhouse, Environmental Defence Canada Water Program Manager
• The formal COP15 panel, “Water Protectors Speaking Up for the Great Lakes,” explored the fight to shut down Line 5 in the US and Canada.

“As evident by the Keystone Pipeline spill in Kansas just days ago, it’s not a matter of if pipelines rupture and spill, but when. The Great Lakes are a drinking water source to over 40 million US and Canadian citizens and are home to over 4,000 plants, fish, and wildlife. If Line 5 spills into the Great Lakes, it would be catastrophic,” said Sierra Club Illinois Organizer Tessine Murji, who participated in the aforementioned events at COP15. “The new Global Biodiversity Framework developed at COP15 can only get us so far. If we’re not protecting the biodiversity of ⅕ of the world’s fresh water, are we truly working to conserve and protect the planet?” 

Enbridge, a Canadian company, is the owner and operator of Line 5, a 69-year-old tar sands pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin, through the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, and ends in Sarnia, Ontario. Enbridge is currently operating illegally in Wisconsin and Michigan. In 2013, Enbridge’s easements to operate in Wisconsin on the Bad River Reservation expired, and in 2017, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa passed a resolution resolving not to renew Enbridge’s easements. 

In 2021, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered Line 5 to be shut down after revoking Enbridge’s easement to operate in the Straits of Mackinac. Enbridge is ignoring Governor Whitmer’s shut down order and is instead attempting to build an oil tunnel through the Straits—one of the most ecologically and geologically sensitive areas in the world. 

“The construction of Enbridge’s new oil tunnel will take years, it’s an engineering nightmare, and it amplifies the risk of an oil spill in the Great Lakes during construction, which will destroy recent archaeological discoveries of Tribal significance,” said Christy McGillivray, Sierra Club Michigan Political and Legislative Director. “In order to protect global biodiversity and respect Indigenous rights, we need to shut down Line 5, not build an oil tunnel that keeps Enbridge’s oil and profits flowing.” 

“Though biodiversity and habitat loss are often seen as effects of our changing climate, they are in fact interconnected crises,” said Sierra Club Wisconsin Director Elizabeth Ward. “We are only as healthy as our planet is, and Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline poses a significant threat to both our health and our planet. In order to be a global leader in addressing the intersecting climate and biodiversity crises, President Biden and his administration must commit to shutting down Line 5.”

“Canada has for years had an international reputation for being an environmental leader that has never been earned. Our governments in this country talk loudly about respecting Indigenous rights on the international stage but only when it is convenient and when it doesn’t contradict the plans of Canadian energy companies. If we truly believe in respecting Indigenous peoples and their rights, if we are really serious about protecting biodiversity, then Line 5 must be shut down,” said Conor Curtis, Head of Communications at Sierra Club Canada.