All over the country, the Kochs and utilities have been blocking solar initiatives — but nowhere more so than in Florida
After decades of false starts, solar power in America is finally poised for its breakthrough moment. The price of solar panels has dropped by more than 80 percent since President Obama took office, and the industry is beginning to compete with coal and natural gas on economics alone.
The campaign to get the University of British Columbia to stop investing in fossil fuel companies will push forward even after the board committee voted against divesting, organizers say.
UBC's finance committee on Wednesday rejected a student and faculty-supported proposal to divest its $1.46-billion endowment fund of fossil fuel investments. About $85 million of that is invested in the energy sector.
"The campaign is not going to stop until they divest," said Alex Hemingway, a UBC PhD student and divestment coordinator.
There’s something almost quaint in the idea that the private sector is going to solve our energy and climate predicaments. Like Ant & Dec, the big energy companies and their state subsidisers keep making new programmes, and they’re only getting worse.
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.
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.
[Website editor's note: This article is a useful summary of provincial emission-reduction policies, or rather the lack thereof.]
Provincial premiers boast leadership in the country’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but achieving their own lofty ambitions will require political courage and aggressive policies to drive fundamental changes in the way Canadians produce and consume energy.
