Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna with Industry Minister Jim Carr (left) and BC Premier Christy Clark (right) announcing the federal government’s approval of PNWLNG (Province of BC/Flickr) Developing a climate plan to meet Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments is a challenging but achievable task for the federal government. Doing so
Continue readingTag: Carbon Tax – Cap and Trade
The Common Sense Canadian: May calls Paris deal “a masterful balancing act” between ideal and practical
Elizabeth May calls the recent Paris climate deal “a masterful balancing act” between the ideal and practical. Ray Grigg on the imperfect, yet laudable and achievable agreement.
The post May calls Paris deal “a masterful balancing act” between ideal and practical appeared first on The Common Sense Canadian.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: China’s emissions drop, global cleanteach boom are cause for optimism on climate change
Chinese solar company Suntech at the Bird’s Nest stadium Despite Canada’s total lack of leadership in the green economy, a number of key global developments are grounds for optimism heading into the Paris UN conference on climate change. Global emissions plateau in 2014 In a pleasant surprise for the planet at large, according
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Carbon Year: Pressure building for real global climate pact
French President Francois Hollande is pressuring Stephen Harper ahead of Paris climate talks (Twitter/@pmharper) The pressure is building to reduce global carbon emissions. At each meeting of the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP), the urgency becomes more palpable. The Lima meeting of COP 20 in December, 2014, failed
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Justin Trudeau continues Liberal greenwash legacy: Ex-govt insider
Justin Trudeau argues for Keystone XL at a think tank in Washington, DC (Photo: Chip Somodevllla/Getty) The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) has a history of big talk on the environment, but, once in power, failing to deliver. Each climate change action plan has demonstrated this trend, accompanied by boastful press releases on how much
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: The Economist calculates the enormous cost of ignoring climate change
Rendering of New York City from “World Under Water”, an app designed by Carbon Story Read this June 28 story from The Economist on the cost of doing nothing to curb climate change – and interesting corollary to the World Bank’s recent determination that tackling global warming could significantly grow the global economy. It has been
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: World Bank: Battling climate change would grow global economy
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim Read this June 24 story from The Guardian on the World Bank’s view that tackling climate change would be good for the global economy, contradicting statements by national leaders like Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Australia’s Tony Abbott. Fighting climate change would help grow the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Obama gets tough on coal plant emissions with 30% reduction goal
President Obama visits Copper Mountain solar plant (Photo: Sempra U.S. Gas & Power) By Dina Cappiello, The Associated Press WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday rolled out a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 per cent by 2030, setting the first national limits on
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Insurance industry applying its own carbon tax
New York City saw billions in flood damages from Hurricane Sandy (Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images) The actuarial sciences of the insurance industry have identified an implacable reality and placed a tax on carbon emissions. For anyone who wants insurance, payment is unavoidable. Protesting or complaining won’t change an insurance industry that
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Europe leads the way on building a green economy
The European Union has fast become the global leader on migrating to a green economy, with its Emissions Trading System (cap and trade scheme) in place since 2005. Canada has much to learn from the current and future EU debates on establishing new targets for 2030 – particularly how to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada failing to meet even domestic climate targets; Huge spike expected post-2020
by Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press OTTAWA – Never mind those international targets, the federal government appears to be having trouble meeting even its own internal operational goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. An internal PowerPoint presentation prepared by Public Works and Government Services Canada asks each federal department to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Large US companies preparing to pay a carbon tax
Read this Dec. 5 story from The New York Times on a new report by the environmental data company CDP which shows that at least 29 large American companies are incorporating a price on carbon into their long-term financial plans. WASHINGTON — More than two dozen of the nation’s biggest
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Japan puts global climate change action in jeopardy
WARSAW, Poland – Japan’s decision to drastically scale back its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions could hurt efforts to craft a global deal to fight climate change, delegates at U.N. talks said Friday. The new target approved by the Japanese Cabinet calls for reducing emissions by 3.8 per cent
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Premier Christy Clark defends LNG industry’s carbon footprint
photo: Tina Lovgreen / BCIT Commons Read this Nov. 13 story from CBC.ca on BC Premier Christy Clark’s response to mounting concerns over the massive carbon footprint associated with her government’s plan to build an LNG industry. The five major plants the province envisions for BC’s coast would dramatically boost
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Typhoon Haiyan tragedy shows urgency of Warsaw climate summit
As people in the Philippines struggle with the devastation and death from the worst storm to hit land in recorded history – Typhoon Haiyan – world leaders are meeting in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss the climate crisis. “What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Team Harper should rack a win at climate talks…if they’re smart
With another round of international climate negotiations opening this week in Warsaw, Poland, and a new poll finding Canadians wanting leadership on the issue, Stephen Harper and his Conservative government have an opportunity to begin turning the tides on what has been up until now an abysmal failure. Since taking
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC struggles to reconcile carbon emissions with “clean” LNG claims
Australia’s Colongra gas-powered electrical plant – BC LNG would be powered by carbon-intensive plants like this one VICTORIA – Like the underground shale gas that Premier Christy Clark says will pave the way to a debt-free future, British Columbia appears caught between a rock and a hard place in balancing
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada’s fossil fuels are risky business with Global Carbon Budget
Alberta Tar Sands operation near Fort McMurray (photo: Kris Krûg) by Carol Linnitt – republished from Desmog Canada In its latest report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave global greenhouse gas emissions a worldwide limit, know as the global ‘carbon budget.’ In order to prevent temperatures from rising
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: With LNG emissions, BC will fail to meet climate targets
VICTORIA – A report presented to the United Nations indicates British Columbia is meeting its legislated targets to cut greenhouse gas pollution, but environmental leaders say that won’t last much longer even if the province sets up a smokescreen to hide the air pollution created by proposed liquefied natural gas
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Harper caught helping Enbridge while wooing Obama on climate
Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press While Stephen Harper was busy trying to green-wash his image with Barack Obama – acquiescing to climate targets to improve prospects for the Keystone XL pipeline – Green Party Leader Elizabeth May dropped a bombshell: the suggestion that the Conservative Government is spending $120 million in
Continue reading