Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Nov. 9 that his province must “make every effort to determine our own destiny” because the federal government had not consulted him adequately on its international climate change agenda. “Saskatchewan needs to be a nation within a nation,” he said. “All options most certainly will be on the table.” [node:read-more:link]
Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor and now UN special envoy on climate change and finance, evidently has persuaded an array of global investors to commit funds for climate change. “It's a mammoth transition,” he said at the latest UN climate change summit. “We have banks, asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies from around the world . . . “totalling US$130 trillion,” which was $30 trillion more than the target. “The money is there.” [node:read-more:link]
Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, is confident that the petroleum giant can achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, he says, the company needs its “legacy” oil and gas cash flows to cover the costs of that transition. [node:read-more:link]
Some climate scientists and environmental advocates argue that nuclear power is the best hope of addressing climate change because its carbon emissions are limited. On the other hand, critics decry its huge startup costs and the perennial problem of long-term waste management. [node:read-more:link]
A drop in global carbon dioxide emissions during the coronavirus lockdowns has pretty well gone up in smoke, much of it in China. At the peak of the pandemic last year, emissions were 34.8 billion tonnes, but the Global Carbon Project report says output has rebounded to 2019 levels. [node:read-more:link]
Canada will impose a hard cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today at the global climate summit in Glasgow. Emissions would decrease “at a pace and scale needed to reach net-zero by 2050,” he said, acknowledging that it would be “no small task.” [node:read-more:link]
Canada's new Minister of Environment and Climate change, Montreal MP Steven Guilbeault, insists that he has no “secret” agenda despite his record as an environmental activitist and pipeline critic. He was responding Oct. 27 to concerns expressed by Alberta Premier Brian Kenney about the federal climate change agenda. “It's a government effort to tackle . . . what many consider one of humanity's greatest challenges,” he said. [node:read-more:link]
The UN said Oct. 26 that current international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average global temperature rise of 2.7 degrees Celsius this century. It’s yet another stark warning in the run-up to the latest climate change summit which begins next week in Scotland. [node:read-more:link]
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is worried by the appointment of Montreal MP Steven Guilbeault as the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The former Greenpeace activist was arrested 20 years ago for scaling the CN Tower in Toronto as part of a climate change campaign and has been openly critical of some pipeline projects. Kenney says Guilbeault’s new cabinet role sends a “very problematic” message to Alberta. [node:read-more:link]
With the 26th UN global climate change conference looming next week, a new report drafted by Canada and Germany says the developed world has fallen well short of a commitment to support poorer countries’ efforts. It states that the failure to meet the annual goal of US$100 billion had necessitates more aggressive action over the next few years because “the significance of meeting this goal cannot be overstated.” [node:read-more:link]
Atmospheric greenhouse gases are at a record high, according to the World Meteorological Organization. With yet another UN climate change summit set to begin next weekend, the WMO says the latest data put the planet on a catastrophic warming trend. [node:read-more:link]
A new Arctic strategy published today would ban development of new hydrocarbon development in the region. The European Commission acknowledged that the EU still imports petroleum resources from the North but said it will work “towards a multilateral legal obligation not to allow any further hydrocarbon reserve development in the Arctic or contiguous regions.” [node:read-more:link]
Canada is among two dozen countries which have joined an initiative led by the EU and the U.S. designed to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030. The notion is to give momentum to the issue in advance of the UN climate summit which begins Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland. [node:read-more:link]
New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh wants the minority Liberal government to take “concrete” steps in return for its support in Parliament. He said Oct. 7 that the “immediate” requirements include paid sick leave, a federal coronavirus vaccination passport, real progress on reconciliation with indigenous peoples and on climate change measures. [node:read-more:link]
Only a couple of weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping told the UN his country would stop funding foreign coal-fired power plants to help reduce global carbon emissions, China’s two largest coal-producing regions have been ordered to expand output to address power requirements. [node:read-more:link]
