Carbon pricing

15 July 2016 - Earlier this year media outlets around the world announced that February had broken global temperature records by a shocking amount. March broke all the records, too. In June our screens were covered with surreal images of Paris flooding, the Seine bursting its banks and flowing into the streets. In London, the floods sent water pouring into the tube system right in the heart of Covent Garden. Roads in south-east London became rivers two metres deep.

“Economic expansion is unavoidable under capitalism, and destruction of the planet is the inexorable result.”

Green capitalism: the god that failed
by Richard Smith
World Economics Association eBooks, 2015

reviewed by David Klein

[One webpage editor's note: Three items below - Tzeporah Berman's new position in Alberta, 'astroturfing'  by some US unions, and the promoters of a bitumen refinery who include the then-President of  the paperworkers union I was a member of for years.]

The surprising composition of Alberta’s new oilsands GHG advisory group

by JNW staff, jwenergy.com, July 14, 2016

Canada's oil sands production will grow by 1 million barrels daily in the next decade above the current output of about 2.75 million barrels, driven mostly by the expansion of existing facilities rather than new projects, a new reports shows.

According to global consulting firm IHS Energy, the roughly 42% production increase will help Canada remain among the world’s largest oil suppliers.

A new leak provides further confirmation that the pro-corporate TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the U.S. and European Union would result in "a giant leap backward in our fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

With growing urgency, governments across the globe are setting bold targets for renewable energy. However, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says that smart development will be needed to ensure the right mix of low-carbon electricity generation to cut emissions and to avoid unexpected environmental problems.

It’s Canada’s $1-billion carbon dilemma.

Major energy distributors and consumers in Ontario and Quebec expect to spend more than $1-billion over four years on California greenhouse gas emission allowances. Without agreement with the United States, however, those international emission credits cannot be counted as part of Canada’s international commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

June 17, 2016 VICTORIA — While B.C. ‘s carbon tax has drawn praise from around the world, the pioneering measure does not come close to meeting the claim of revenue neutrality the B.C. Liberals made for it at the outset.

Even a few short months ago, the idea that Alberta would be considered ahead of its neighbour to the west when it comes to environmental stewardship would have been laughable.