When the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt announced plans to build a multibillion-dollar “gigafactory” in Quebec, the proposal was heralded as a win for Canada’s ambitions to become a global green energy powerhouse – and lauded as an environmentally sensitive project which would minimize harmful emissions.
Four months later, however, protesters are describing the sprawling plant an “ecocidal disgrace”, and driving steel bars and nails into trees, to prevent the company from clearcutting forests and destroying wetlands ahead of construction.
