Hello! I’m Lisa and I follow environmental policy for The Times. There was a big win for fossil fuels this week, so the newsletter team invited me in to talk about what Big Oil is thinking and what we might expect from the industry going forward.
Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 2.8% in 2021, and fossil fuels accounted for more than half of the total, according to an “early estimate” released today by the Canadian Climate Institute (CCI).
The Institute’s analysis shows emissions continuing to “decouple” from GDP, so that each unit of economic activity produces less climate pollution. But the country’s total greenhouse gas output increased by 19 million tonnes, to a total of 691 megatonnes, in a year when the economy was just beginning to restart after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Winter 2023 (New Politics Vol. XIX No. 2, Whole Number 74)
An Interview with Alyssa Battistoni
Alyssa Battistoni teaches political theory at Barnard College. She is the co-author of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso 2019) and is currently writing a book titled Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. Phil Gasper spoke with Alyssa on behalf of the New Politics editorial board on November 4, 2022.
Electric utilities are likely responsible for the nation’s higher than expected emissions of sulfur hexafluoride, a greenhouse gas 25,000 times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide.
While emissions of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), the world’s most potent greenhouse gas, have fallen sharply in the U.S. in recent decades, actual emissions are significantly higher than the official government estimates, a new study concludes.
Given the scale and complexity of the transition away from hydrocarbons, some worry that economic analysis has been given short shrift in the policy planning process. A clear-eyed assessment of the transition's prospects requires a deeper understanding of at least four major challenges.
We are in the midst of both an environmental crisis and an affordability crisis, which are linked. The solutions on offer, from raising fares to relying on electric cars, don’t solve either problem. But increasing access to public transit is good for all workers, all riders, and the planet. Taking action for free and accessible public transit can win reforms and set us on track for climate justice.
Website editor: Ecosocialists will find this interview lacking on such questions as consumption, profit and inequality and yet: "Is your faith in governments or in individuals to force that change? Neither, my faith is in movements. I think the most important thing individuals can do is be a little bit less of an individual and join together in movements with others large enough to make change happen"
