Climate Change

Canada’s natural gas industry is under a Competition Bureau microscope after the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment accused the industry’s lobby group of misleading claims about its carbon emissions. The CGA’s latest advertising campaign promotes gas as a form of low emission energy but the CAPE argues that natural gas is not as “clean” as the industry claims and that extraction and production “pose a serious health risk.” [node:read-more:link]

The effects of climate change took a $20-billion bite out of Canada's economy in 2021, according to a report released November 8 by Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. Looking ahead to the ongoing impact, the report says that even if all global commitments to reduce greenhouse gases are fulfilled, the Canadian economy can continue to be expected to fall short of its potential. [node:read-more:link]

A State of the Cryosphere report released at the latest UN global climate change conference predicts that the Arctic will lose its entire summer sea ice cover at least once in the next few decades and probably more frequently “It's a threshold tipped,” Pamela Pearson, a former U.S. diplomat and one of the report’s editors, said November 7. “Loss of summer sea ice is now inevitable.” [node:read-more:link]

As representatives from most nations gathered in Egypt for the latest global climate conference, the World Meteorological Organization sounded yet another warning about the accelerating impact of global warming. WMO chief Petteri Taalas said “there are no positive indicators so far” and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the agency’s report as “a chronicle of climate chaos.” [node:read-more:link]

The UN Environment Program says the world is neither doing enough, nor even promising to do so to addres climate change attributed to greenhouse gas emissions. “Global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short,” says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday. “We are headed for a global catastrophe.” [node:read-more:link]

The Ontario Power Generation utility is being loaned $970 million by the federal government to support development of grid-scale small modular nuclear reactors as a key element of its fight against global warming. “We are doing this because nuclear energy – as a non-emitting source of energy – is critical to the achievement of Canada's and the world's climate goals,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said. “Nuclear power is one source that can help in reaching our climate targets while addressing growing future demand.” [node:read-more:link]

The Liberals and Conservatives in the House of Commons, debating a Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report on carbon taxation, are citing the same report to make conflicting arguments about the federal carbon tax. [node:read-more:link]

The Sierra Club environmental lobby group is accusing ng the British Columbia government of failing to report, as required by its own legislation, on whether its climate plans will achieve key greenhouse gas emissions targets. It is suing in provincial supreme court on grounds that the 2019 law requires annual public reports on progress toward emissions targets out to 2050. [node:read-more:link]

The Canadian Climate Change Institute said in a report released today that Canadians can expect to have to choose between higher taxes or reduced government services if more isn’t done to adapt to climate change. “We have some ability to change this future,” said Ryan Ness, director of adaptation research for the registered charity, which said that if the public and private sectors begin investing in making the country more resilient to extreme weather, the economic impact could be reduced by 75 per cent. [node:read-more:link]

Post-tropical storm Fiona is expected to be the costliest storm to ever hit Atlantic Canada but analysts at DBRS Morning Star, the fourth-largest credit rating agency in the world, say gaps in insurance coverage leave many property owners without coverage after the weekend’s devastation. [node:read-more:link]

The European Union, in an escalating standoff with Russia over natural gas supplies, is being urged by the UN not to potentially undermine climate change mitigation by burning other fossil fuels this winter. “In the face of soaring energy prices which threaten to impact the most vulnerable as winter approaches, some EU member states are turning to investments in fossil fuels infrastructure and supplies,” UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Commissioner Nada al-Nashif of Jordan said September 12. “There is no room for backtracking in the face of the ongoing climate crisis.” [node:read-more:link]

Australia has legislated a commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the initiative an end to a decade of inaction by a half dozen predecessors, but independent MPs want a 50 per cent reduction by the end of this decade while the Green Party called it a “small step” and most want an end to new coal and natural gas projects. [node:read-more:link]

The federal government has rejected a call by Nova Scotia to be exempted from the national carbon levy program. Environment & Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault’s August 29 response is being called a “missed opportunity” by his provincial counterpart. “A carbon tax will increase prices,” Tim Halman says, arguing that the federal levy is not needed because Nova Scotia has legislated the most aggressive emissions reductions in Canada. [node:read-more:link]

Canada’s economy is predicted to take a $139 billion hit over the next three decades as floods, droughts and increasingly severe weather damages or destroys infrastructure. The grim projection is set out in a new climate-based analysis of seven countries by GHD Group, a global engineering and architectural services company headquartered in Australia. [node:read-more:link]

A B.C. judge has accused a conservation group of using frontline protesters as “sacrificial lambs” in blockades designed to draw attention to the group’s broader political agenda. In granting a conditional discharge to a 30-year-old who participated in repeated demonstrations against old-growth logging, Provincial Court Judge Laura Bakan called him “a person whose personal attributes are easily preyed on”, but a spokesperson for the group dismissed the judge’s comment as “speculation” to get the accused off lightly. [node:read-more:link]