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Poll:
Canadians Views on the Upcoming G8/G20 Summit
May 31, 2010
Nanos Research
View
poll results.
Opinion:
PM ignoring vital climate change issue
May 29, 2010
Seamus Wolfe
As world leaders prepare for the upcoming
G20 global leaders summit, to be held in Toronto next month, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to Ottawa this month and made a
public plea for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to put climate change on
the summit agenda. For the sake of London's future, Stephen Harper would
be wise to listen to Ban. more
Opinion:
Harper plays wallflower on climate
May 29, 2010
Clare Demerse
Ever since Barack Obama's election,
Stephen Harper has set a single goal for Canada's climate policy:
"harmonizing" our efforts to cut greenhouse gas pollution with the
United States' plans.
Like marriage, harmonizing sounds good in
theory -- but it doesn't work unless you find the right partner. more
Head
in the (tar)sands
May 28, 2010
Susan
Riley, The Ottawa Citizen
We got a rare glimpse behind the doors of
the Harper cabinet this week, through a leaked memo that suggests
Environment Minister Jim Prentice is at odds with Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty (and, perhaps, the prime minister) on the touchy subject of
subsidies to the oil and gas industry.
Touchy and timely. The
memo, signed by deputy finance minister Michael Horgan, says Canada
could take a "leadership role" at the upcoming G20 summit next month,
win international plaudits for environmental and economic responsibility
and help pay down the deficit by phasing out subsidies to Big Oil that
have outlived their usefulness. more
Canada
will help save forests
May 28, 2010
Mike
De Souza, Canwest News Service
Developing countries will soon get
billions of dollars in financial incentives from the industrialized
world to stop deforestation and the resulting emissions that are linked
to climate change, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said yesterday at a
climate change conference in Norway. more
Mexico's
president pushes Ottawa to act on climate change
May 28, 2010
Campbell Clark and Brian Milner, Globe and Mail
Mexico’s
president, in Ottawa as Stephen Harper’s guest, has taken a whack at his
host’s wait-for-the-U.S. policies on climate change.
Prime
Minister Harper has said Canada will wait to see what policies the U.S.
adopts to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases, because the two
countries’ economies are so closely integrated. But Felipe Calderon, who
leads the United States’ other border nation and trade-bloc partner,
expressed exasperation at waiting for rich countries to step forward. more
Daniel
T’seleie Awarded Northern Young Internship with Climate Action Network
Canada
For release May
27, 2010
Climate Action Network Canada
(Ottawa) Climate Action Network
Canada – a leading group of Canadian non-governmental NGOs - are pleased
to welcome Daniel T'seleie as our Northern Youth Climate Intern.
“We
feel very lucky to be able to welcome Daniel to the team,” says Graham
Saul, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada. “Over the
past years Daniel has proven himself to be an incredibly dedicated
advocate of issues around climate change and the North. We will no doubt
benefit greatly from his commitment and expertise in climate change
work in our diverse and vast northern regions.” more
Going
green is good business, say CEOs
May 26, 2010
Kim Covert, Financial Post
A growing
realization that there's money to be made from going green has helped
take environmental initiatives from the grassroots to the executive
suite.
According to a recent survey commissioned by Ernst &
Young, 82 per cent of Canadian executives say responding to climate
change is "imperative," and plan to increase spending on climate change
initiatives. more
Climate
Action Network Canada Calls on Finance Minister to Take his
Department’s Advice and Phase out Fossil Fuel Subsidies
May 26, 2010
Climate Action Network
Canada
A
leaked memo to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty advised the minister to
live up to a G20 commitment to phase out tax breaks to the companies
that produce coal, oil and gas. With just four weeks left before the G20
summit in Toronto, it’s time for Minister Flaherty and Prime Minister
Harper to commit to a Canadian plan to end tax breaks to fossil fuel
producers.
“The leaked memo shows that senior officials at the
Department of Finance want to see an end to tax breaks for the fossil
fuel sector. We couldn’t agree more,” said Graham Saul of Climate Action
Network Canada. more
Phase
out subsidies to oil and gas, Flaherty urged
May 26, 2010
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
The Harper
government is being urged by its own senior bureaucrats to "lead by
example" and deliver on a commitment to phase out subsidies for the oil
and gas sector at a global economic summit next month in Toronto. more
Climate
change criticism reaches new level
May 19, 2010
Anca Gurzu, Embassy
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
wasted no time during his whistle-stop visit to Ottawa last week in
levelling a clear challenge to the Harper government on what many
consider its Achilles heel: climate change. more
Climate
change negotiating seat goes unfilled for months
May 19, 2010
Carl Meyer, Embassy
While the Harper government
continues to be hit with criticism over its environmental policies,
Canada has been left without a permanent climate change negotiator at
high-level talks for months.
Though environmental experts say
former chief negotiator Michael Martin's absence won't make much
difference, since he had to toe the government line, they say not having
a full-time negotiator has eliminated the little amount of contact they
had with the government. more
It’s
the economy that counts and the rest is just noise, Harper tells
students
May 17, 2010
Campbell
Clark, The Globe and Mail
It’s the economy that counts, and all the
media hoopla about other stuff is a sideshow. That was Stephen Harper’s
message to “youth delegates” coming to quiz him about this summer’s G8
and G20 summits. more
Blog:
Norwegian firm Statoil under pressure to withdraw from oil sands
May 17, 2020
Keith Stewart,
WWF Canada
Canadian
oil sands are making headlines in Norway, as the government (which owns
67% of the oil company Statoil) is under pressure from institutional
investors, opposition parties and the public to withdraw from the oil
sands and invest in greener alternatives. more
Geothermal
could meet Canada’s power needs
May 17, 2010
Tyler Hamilton, The Star
Canada could technically meet all
its electricity needs and dramatically lower greenhouse-gas emissions if
it moved aggressively to develop enhanced geothermal power projects,
according to the first comprehensive assessment of the country’s deep
geothermal resources. more
U.N.
to pick Costa Rican as new climate chief -sources
May 17, 2010
Reuters
Veteran Costa Rican climate diplomat
Christiana Figueres is set to be appointed as the United Nations' new
climate chief, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. more
Blog: The geography of
Canada's greenhouse gas emissions
May 13, 2010
PJ Partington,
The Pembina Institute
It's no secret that Canada's greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions are much higher today than they were in 1990. By
2008, the latest year with data available, Canada's emissions were 24
per cent higher than in 1990. We're often told the fault lies with our
growing economy and growing population.
Environment Canada released new emissions
data last month, and we've been digging into it.
What jumps out
right away is that Alberta is responsible for over half (52 per cent) of
Canada's emissions growth since 1990, despite being responsible for
only 18 per cent of GDP growth and 19 per cent of the growth in
population. more
Harper
faces Stern words on climate
May 13, 2010
Kevin
Carmichael, The Globe and Mail
Add
another big voice to those calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to
talk about climate change at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto next
month.
Nicholas
Stern, the British economist who authored a seminal 700-page study on
the economics of global warming in 2006, says the G20 has a role in
achieving the “political agreement” that he believes is necessary to
advance on the commitments made at the United Nations’ climate change
conference in Copenhagen in December. more
U.S.
climate bill puts no pressure on Canada: Prentice
May 12, 2010
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — A new
U.S. Senate proposal to tackle energy and climate change, endorsed by
President Barack Obama, isn't going to immediately force the Harper
government to unveil its own plan to tackle global warming pollution
from industry, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Wednesday.
..."To
me, what doesn't make sense is that the United States is already
spending 14 times as much per capita on renewable energy as Canada is,
per capita," said David Suzuki, the award-winning scientist and
broadcaster, at a news conference. "So what the hell are we talking
about? If we want to harmonize (with) them, we've got a long way to go
to catch up to where they're already at before they even kick in with
their own legislation." more
Harper
rejects UN chief's plea to make climate change G20 agenda's top
priority
May 13, 2010
Mike
Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada brushed aside a direct
public demand Wednesday by the visiting United Nations chief and
reiterated that it will not make climate change a priority agenda item
when it hosts the G20 summit next month. more
A
Chance too Good to Waste: The Case for Climate Action at Canada's G8
and G20 Summits
May 12, 2010
Clare Demerse,
The Pembina Institute
This backgrounder explains why the
Government of Canada should support global climate action through its
role in the G8 and G20 summits in June, by:
• providing financial
support for climate action in poorer countries
• making climate
change a priority agenda item for its summits
• taking stronger
action to reduce emissions
Put
environment on G20 agenda, UN chief tells Harper
May 12, 2010
The Canadian Press
The United Nations chief has some
tough messages for Stephen Harper today.
UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon wants climate change on the agenda in earnest when Canada hosts
the G20 summit next month in Toronto.
He also wants Canada to
live up to the greenhouse-gas reduction targets it negotiated under the
Kyoto Protocol. more
Hyer:
Multi-Partisan Support to Shepherd Climate Bill Through Senate
May 12, 2010
Bruce Hyer, MP
Following
Wednesday’s adoption of New Democrat MP Bruce Hyer’s Climate Change
Accountability Act by the House of Commons, the Senate heard first
reading of the private member’s bill by the sponsor of the legislation,
Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell.
“We urgently need federal action
on a climate change framework for Canada” said Senator Grant Mitchell.
“Not only is climate change a defining ecological issue, it is
increasingly an economic one. I commend Mr. Hyer for his hard work on
this bill, and I look forward to the collaboration of my colleagues in
the Senate to move it forward.” more
Canada's
tar sands: a dangerous solution to offshore oil
May 11, 2010
Heather McRobie, guardian.co.uk
As the clean-up
of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues, the US may
finally begin to rethink its position on off-shoring drilling. As usual,
change is frustratingly slow, and almost imperceptible: environmental
groups like the Centre for Biological Diversity have criticised the
Mineral Management Service, the US agency that oversees oil extraction,
for its "business as usual" approach during the disaster, and expressed
concerns that the Obama administration has waived environmental reviews
of more than 20 new off-shore drilling projects even as the Deepwater
Horizon spill continues.
Still, a glimmer of environmental hope
has come from the unlikely source of Californian governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who withdrew his support to expand off-shore exploration
off California's coast in the wake of the BP oil spill. more
Pembina Oil Sands Blog:
Gulf spill exploited to paint oil sands green
May 10, 2010
Danielle
Droitsch
Alberta
Premier Ed Stelmach and Environment Minister Jim Prentice have crafted a
new message, touting the oil sands as the safe alternative to offshore
development in the wake of BP's oil spill. They're saying it loud and
proud - that Alberta's oil sands are the responsibly developed, safe
alternative to offshore development. more
For
relevant politics, look to the provinces and municipalities
May 7, 2010
Jeffrey Simpson, The
Globe and Mail
These things do go in cycles, but at the
moment, almost all the interesting developments in politics and policy
in Canada are taking place at the provincial and municipal level, rather
than in Ottawa. more
Harper hears Transatlantic calls for climate change
reforms
May 5, 2010
Canwest
The
Harper government was urged to fight climate change on both sides of
the Atlantic Wednesday through separate votes in both the Canadian and
European parliaments. more
New
Report Exposes Enbridge Inc’s Destructive Gamble on Eve of Annual
Meeting of Shareholders
May 5, 2010
Polaris Institute
In
advance of Enbridge Inc.’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for
Wednesday, May 5th, the Polaris Institute and the Indigenous
Environmental Network are releasing a new corporate profile of the
company. In the profile, Enbridge Inc’s dirty tar sands gamble is
exposed as potentially dangerous in terms of its impacts on the
environment and First Nations communities. more
Read the report: Out on
the Tar Sands Mainline: Mapping Enbridge’s Web of Pipelines
EU
head urges Canada to act on climate change
May 5, 2010
CBC
Canada shouldn't keep
waiting for the rest of the world to act on climate change before making
its own changes, the president of the European Union Commission said
Wednesday as he prepared to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in
Brussels. more
Event:
Report Back from Cochabamba
Meet and hear from
participants in the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the
Rights of Mother Earth held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 19-22.
When:
Friday, May 7, 2010, 7:00pm
Where: Toronto - Steelworkers Hall, 25
Cecil Street (east of Spadina, south of College)
Cost: Donation $5 or
pay what you can.
Click here
for more information or contact Torontoboliviasolidarity[at]gmail.com
Canada
falling behind on green jobs investment: Report
May 4, 2010
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
Canada
is losing out on about 66,000 jobs because the Harper government is not
keeping pace with renewable energy investments made by the Obama
administration, estimates a new report to be released on Tuesday at a
green economy conference in Washington. more
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