Keystone XL oil pipeline finally scrapped after Biden blocks permit

All construction on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline has stopped months after permission to build it was taken away by US President Joe Biden.

The pipeline was set to carry oil 1,200 miles (1,900km) from the Canadian province of Alberta down to the US state of Nebraska.

The burning of fossil fuels like oil are used to power factories, buildings and transportation. But they release carbon dioxide and other substances into the atmosphere, which trap heat from the Sun and warm up the Earth.

Environmentalists and Native American groups had fought against the project for more than a decade.

In a statement on Wednesday, the project's developer TC Energy said it would work carefully to take apart their equipment and "ensure a safe termination of and exit from" areas where construction had been planned.

On his first day in office President Biden cancelled a presidential permit - originally approved by President Trump in 2017 - to allow the project to cross into the US after concerns that it would contribute to climate change.

But his decision was criticised by other US politicians, including members of his own Democratic party, who said the project would have created jobs for American workers.

While visiting US troops based in the UK during a trip to the G7 conference on Wednesday, Mr Biden said that climate change represents the "greatest threat" to US national security.

"There will be significant population movements, fights over land, millions of people leaving places because they're literally sinking below the sea in Indonesia, because of the fights over what is arable land anymore," he added.