Environmental groups want the eight countries that ring the North Pole to take a stand on banning the use of heavy fuel oil, considered one of the greatest threats to the Arctic ecosystem.
"We believe that measures are desperately needed to reduce the environmental impacts from Arctic shipping, and that a logical place to focus attention is vessel fuel quality," said the letter from 15 international environmental groups to the Arctic Council.
Albertans don’t need to be reminded that an economy built largely on oil extraction isn’t always smooth sailing. Amid 2009’s great recession, Alberta shed over 17,000 jobs, flatlining for most of 2010 before roaring back in 2011 with more than 100,000 new jobs. The job losses of 2015 — 19,600, according to Statistics Canada — are yet another bust in a boom-and-bust cycle that fractures communities.
On Feb. 15, it’s decision day. UBC’s Board of Governors will finally provide an answer to growing calls that the university stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. Students launched the appeal for fossil fuel divestment in 2013, and were soon joined by faculty, staff, alumni and elected officials.
For the last two and half years UBC has failed to act on divestment, and the costs — both financial and moral — are mounting.
Does ignoring downstream impacts export Canada's responsibilities?
The Trudeau government's newly announced reforms to pipeline environmental assessments still fail to consider the impact of almost 90 per cent of resulting greenhouse gas emissions, climate experts have told The Tyee.
The government announced a new interim assessment regime Wednesday, saying it will restore public confidence in much-criticized National Energy Board reviews.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the Paris climate agreement by committing to take on the "tough work that still needs to be accomplished both at home and around the world to implement the agreement." Part of that tough work will be re-orienting federal funding to stop making the climate crisis worse.
Given Trudeau's statements on the seriousness of the climate crisis, you might expect that the multi-billion dollar infrastructure program he ran on in the election would already be targeted to reduce carbon pollution. You would be wrong.
With the December Paris climate agreement, leaders and experts from around the world showed that they overwhelmingly accept that human-caused climate change is real and, because the world has continued to increase fossil fuel use, the need to curb and reduce emissions is urgent.
