Decolonization is at the heart of effective climate action
Let’s face it, the environmental movement has always centred white voices. When you think of a climate activist, who do you envision? Would it surprise you that millions of people engaged in greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation live in African nations? And that many of them are women? Black History Month spotlights the legacy of […]
Regional concerns must inform ‘just transition’ legislation, say experts, as Wilkinson acknowledges energy worker anxiety
As the federal government embarks on a whole-of-government approach to climate action, with all eyes on the introduction of long-awaited “just transition” legislation to help particularly vulnerable workers adapt and retrain for the green energy economy, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson recently acknowledged the “anxiety that workers in some industries feel about the energy transition.” […]
Aligning finances to the new climate reality: fix finance, fix the climate
Our way of life has pushed the current system to its limits. The global demand for material resources is expected to double by 2060, causing environmental damage, an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in the production of waste and associated pollution. Our current linear extractive economy was not designed to include the […]
Nova Scotia Senator Bernard receives Bob Marley Day award
PSG Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, the first African Nova Scotian woman named to the Senate, is one of eight recipients of this year’s Bob Marley Day award. The awards are given every Feb. 6 as part of the City of Toronto’s annual proclamation marking the birthday of the iconic Jamaican musician and human rights advocate. Marley, […]
New openness to decolonization also needed in Inuit climate-health research
Shortly after the new year, a major press conference was held in Ottawa to announce a $40-billion settlement over the systemic underfunding of child welfare services to Indigenous children. It struck me as critical that this settlement had finally been made, but also vital was the tone in which Indigenous Crown Relations Minister Marc Miller, and […]
Liberals eye carbon capture tax credit as key piece of net-zero plan, but critics see more fossil-fuel subsidies on horizon
Look to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to introduce a tax credit for carbon capture projects in this year’s budget, say observers, flagging that the credit’s final design will be a signal of just how much weight the government is putting behind the initiative. Supporters of the promised tax credit for carbon capture, utilization, and storage […]
It’s time to think big, bold, and act with a sense of urgency
TORONTO—As the world seeks to avert catastrophic climate change, the times call for “ferocious deployment” of clean technologies already here, but also “ferocious innovation in potentially game-changing technologies,” Eric Lander, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, urged in a challenging speech last month. So it’s time to think big and […]
Trip-wires and trap doors abound as Parliament resumes
CHELSEA, QUE.—As MPs re-assemble today—another hybrid sitting, for now—there is only one safe, if very general, prediction about the session to come: no one will be happy. The Liberals will feel affronted and misunderstood, nit-picked to distraction by their inferiors. The Conservatives will continue to scan the horizon—with night scopes, if necessary—looking for something to […]
O’Toole attack on Guilbeault an appeal to blue collar class, says strategists
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s mid-January video criticizing the Liberal’s climate change policy was derided by some commentators for misquoting Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and blurring the truth, but strategists note it was a pointed appeal by the Conservatives to “entire classes” of Canadians who depend on the energy economy. It’s an approach that may win […]
Are Canadians adequately preparing for tomorrow’s risks today?
OTTAWA—Davos, the annual January gathering in the Swiss Alps of heads of state, business leaders, policy wonks, activists, and journalists, was cancelled this year due to COVID, but the World Economic Forum (WEF) still released its Global Risks Report which typically helps shape the Davos agenda. The 2022 report provides an intriguing perspective of the […]
