'Alternative' energy and less energy

18/11/23
Author: 
James Westman
Two men walk along a road in Scotch Creek, B.C., as wildfire smoke fills the air on Aug. 19, 2023. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Nov. 16, 2023

While environmentalists are preparing for the COP28 climate summit in Dubai later this month, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is also meeting to discuss its next assessments of the state of global warming. 

After a record-shattering summer — with 2023 on pace to become the hottest year in recorded human history — one of the key decisions for the IPCC is whether to emphasize the prospect of runaway, irreversible global warming by issuing a special report on climate tipping points.

18/11/23
Author: 
Peter Zimonjic
Jerry DeMarco, commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development's latest report, says Canada is set to miss its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Nov. 7, 2023

Liberal government set to miss 2030 emissions targets, says environment commissioner audit

'We found that the measures most critical for reducing emissions had not been identified or prioritized'

The federal government is set to miss its 2030 target to cut carbon emissions by at least 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to the latest audit from the commissioner of the environment's office.

15/11/23
Author: 
Seth Borenstein
Mangroves grow in a recovered mangrove forest, once part of a garbage dump, in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, July 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

Nov. 14, 2023

The world is off track in its efforts to curb global warming in 41 of 42 important measurements and is even heading in the wrong direction in six crucial ways, a new international report calculates.

15/11/23
Author: 
Barry Saxifrage
2030 image

Nov. 15, 2023

Canada still has eight years to achieve our 2030 climate target. But rising emissions over the last two years look like they've already pushed it out of reach. That’s because we are now at a point where each wasted year makes the remaining task overwhelmingly larger.

Have we already run out the clock on climate hope in Canada? Take a look at these five charts and decide for yourself.

The rising cost of delay

My first chart shows the rapidly steepening path to Canada’s 2030 climate target.

15/11/23
Author: 
Tik Root
Lawn equipment spews ‘shocking’ amount of air pollution. Photo by Seattle Parks and Recreation/Flickr (CC BY 2.0 Deed)

Nov. 15, 2023

This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Lawn-care equipment — leaf-blowers, lawnmowers and the like — doesn’t top most people’s lists of climate priorities. But a new report documents how, in aggregate, lawn care is a major source of U.S. air pollution.

10/11/23
Author: 
Claire Elise Thompson, Associate Editor

Nov. 8, 2023

 

The vision

“Air conditioning was a most important invention for us, perhaps one of the signal inventions of history. It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics.”

Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore, in a 2009 interview

07/11/23
Author: 
Natasha Bulowski
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's non-binding motion to exempt all forms of home heating from the carbon price was defeated on Nov. 6, 2023. File photo by Alex Tétreault

Nov. 7, 2023

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s symbolic motion calling for more carbon tax carveouts was defeated, but this won’t end the polarizing debate that centres on equity.

For the most part, opposition politicians and provincial governments have focused their attention on pushing for more carbon price carveouts, calling the Liberals’ three-year exemption on heating oil unfair to the rest of Canadians.

05/11/23
Author: 
John Woodside
Illustration by Ata Ojani/Canada's National Observer

Nov. 3, 2023

Nuclear proliferation experts are warning that 50 years of policy designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons is unravelling as governments invest in certain small modular reactors that could be misused to build bombs.

The concerns are aimed at Moltex, a Saint John, N.B., nuclear startup building small modular reactors (SMRs) that will be powered with spent fuel from CANDU reactors. To make the fuel, Moltex plans to separate plutonium from uranium in CANDU waste and use the extracted plutonium to power new SMRs.

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