Cross-party cooperation can ensure success of Paris Agreement
Remember the Copenhagen Accord, the decade-old global climate agreement? Apparently no one in the Canadian government does, since it is never mentioned. Jan. 29 was the 10th anniversary of Canada sending its Copenhagen pledge to the UN. That included a promise to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020, the third climate […]
We all need to be on the same page to protect the natural world
At the end of January, staff and volunteers from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) will gather in Ottawa. We will pause to celebrate our progress and to explore how we can accelerate efforts to conserve Canada’s lands, waters, and wildlife. The NCC was founded in 1962 by a group of naturalists who saw Canada’s […]
Canada’s oil and gas sector can be part of the climate change solution, not the problem
TORONTO—In a stark new report that needs to be read in Canada, the International Energy Agency warns that the oil and gas industry has two choices as the world transitions to a low-carbon world: it can be part of the problem, or it can be part of the solution. The industry can be part of […]
Canada: unprepared for natural disasters
OTTAWA—The terrifying Australian bush fires is one of the more explosive events of increasing climate change emergencies. Here in Canada, two recently obtained sets of access to information records from Public Safety and Agriculture Canada are not exactly reassuring for Canada’s preparedness for natural disasters. Public Safety records from the agency, which is most responsible for […]
Version 2.0 of the Trudeau climate playbook
Please allow me to introduce Version 2.0 of the Trudeau Climate Playbook. Version 1.0 was released shortly after the December 2015 climate talks that produced the Paris Agreement. In Paris, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that “Canada is back my friends … and here to help” tackle climate change. What followed in the next months […]
Legislative preview: Grits face tricky landscape with dozens of legal changes promised in mandate letters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given his cabinet ministers dozens of objectives that will likely require changes to federal laws, setting up an ambitious legislative agenda for his first foray through a minority Parliament. Mr. Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) Liberals managed to pass 88 bills during four years of majority government in the last Parliament. Some […]
Trudeau comes back to Ottawa with a vacation beard
After a few weeks in Costa Rica, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came back to work with a beard. The salt-and-pepper beard provided some, including The Canadian Press, to speculate that the prime minister’s “more serious look” goes with his “more businesslike approach.” Vice had many theories for the beard, even suggesting it could be a […]
Canada must act to help get everyone out of hot water
Venice is under water, while Filipinos flee the latest super-typhoon. The nightly news replaces images of an Amazon in flames, with those of Sydney shrouded in smoke from wildfires. Less visible, but no less alarming, the oceans are warming and changing in ways that we are only beginning to recognize. In a landmark report earlier […]
Deadlocked at Madrid, firestorms in Australia
LONDON, U.K.—“The point of no return is no longer over the horizon,” warned UN Secretary General António Guterres as COP25 opened in Madrid two weeks ago, and the multitude of delegates from more than a hundred countries presumably understood what he meant. But they ignored it anyway. The point of no return arrives in the […]
At Madrid climate talks, remember ocean protection is climate action
The ocean has nourished and protected a great abundance of life on Earth for billions of years. If we aim to save ourselves from a complete climate breakdown, it’s time to start returning the favour. The UN COP25 climate conference in Madrid is a prime opportunity to declare ocean protection a vital component of our […]
