Thursday 01 May 2008 Next decade 'may see no warming'
Global temperatures may not rise for 10 years as natural cooling masks greenhouse warming, research suggests.
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
La Nina conditions have brought unseasonably cold weather to Europe
The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.
A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.
However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say.
Sunday 27 April 2008 OTTAWA: GOVERNMENT TAKES ENVIRONMENT STEP
Canada's Conservative Party government announced a new environment initiative on Saturday to reduce some sources of smog. Under the plan, limits would also be put on volatile organic compounds that are found in many household items such as house paint, nail polish and vehicle coatings. The compounds cause the strong smell in a newly opened can of paint. Environment Minister John Baird says that such compounds are the second-largest contributor to smog in Canada. Vehicle emissions are first. The government proposes to limit the concentration of the compounds in personal care products, paints and coatings and vehicle refinishing products. But implementing the change by 2010 could cost the industry CDN$323 million according to one industry analyst.
Thursday 03 April 2008 'No Sun link' to climate change
The idea that the Earth's climate is determined by cosmic rays and the Sun's activity is discredited by UK scientists.
Some glaciers in Europe have suffered significant losses
The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown.
Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006.
Some of the biggest losses have occurred in the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges in Europe.
Wednesday 12 March 2008 UNDATED: CLIMATE CHANGE COULD DEVASTATE EASTERN CANADA
A scientific study sponsored by the Canadian government says climate changes risk having a devastating effect on the four Atlantic provinces. The report predicts more violent storms and floods that will particularly affect residents living near sea coasts. The researchers recommend better irrigation systems to reduce the damage and the establishment of buffer zones between the sea and infrastructure such as highways and homes. The heightening of the sea levels and erosion will also have negative effect on supplies of drinking water. The reduction of sources of drinking water and dry summers will cause problems for farmers, municipal water services and fishermen.
Saturday 02 February 2008 Bush's climate talks 'engaging'
The latest US-led climate talks have been described as the most engaging climate negotiations so far. ...One EU delegate said: "I came expecting nothing and was very pleasantly surprised. Normally, we get sterile pre-prepared statements of policy, but this time there was a very frank discussion exploring the very difficult and different conditions facing each of the countries. It was very constructive.
Wednesday 30 January 2008 VANCOUVER: PREMIERS SEARCH FOR CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS
Climate change was again on the agenda as Canada's ten premiers met for the second day on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia. Before the meeting of the Council of the Federation began, Newfoundland's premier, Danny Williams, admitted that finding common ground in the fight against greenhouse gasses was difficult. But reports indicated that British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec were negotiating limits on industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta's premier, Ed Stelmach, did not attend the second day of meetings. His government was criticized for introducing a plan recently to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 14 per cent of 2005 levels by 2050, a period deemed too distant in the future. British Columbia's premier, Gordon Campbell, also said that he expected agreements to be reached on managing water supplies and on preserving forests. British Columbia is leading the move toward establishing limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The province has introduced legislation to cut emissions by 33 per cent by 2020. The ten provinces and three territories formed the Council of the Federation in 2003 to discuss national issues.
Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 Alberta's climate plan tops debate
Canadian premiers offered cautious defence of Alberta's approach to climate change yesterday as they...
Boreal forest the next battle
Canada's forest is emerging as an immense - truly immense - national and international player. Canada's forest is emerging as an immense - truly immense - national and international player.
The broad swath of often-scruffy timberland stretching from Yukon to Labrador is one of the largest stores of carbon on Earth, making it key to fighting global warming and climate change.
It holds an estimated 186 billion tonnes of carbon - about 27 times as much as is released globally by the burning of fossil fuels each year.
Sunday Jan 6, 2008 In 2008, a 100 Percent Chance of Alarm You’re in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global warming. You will be told that such bizarre weather must be a sign of dangerous climate change — and that these images are a mere preview of what’s in store unless we act quickly to cool the planet.
Saturday 05 January 2008 Study says North Atlantic waters may be warming naturally ...Researchers from North Carolina's Duke University say an analysis of available records shows an uneven warming of the North Atlantic Ocean's surface waters in a 50-year period between 1950 and 2000.
2007
Thursday 20 December 2007 How not to regulate climate change
The glacial pace of global negotiations on climate change argues in favour of local, sectoral regulations ... more
18th-century climate change
Molten iron raining down like cowpats; ice floes at New Orleans. The weather of 1783 was an extraordinary case of sudden climate change driven by atmospheric gases ... more
Sunday 09 December 2007 Climate Conflicts It took years for a consensus on the existence and causes of climate change to emerge. But it took no time at all, it seems, for leaders around the world to latch onto the notion that global warming will bring war. In the spring, a report by retired U.S. generals and admirals called on Washington to incorporate climate change, especially its destabilizing effect on weak states, into the United States’ national defense strategy. Soon after, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote in The Washington Post that the origin of the brutal fighting between herders and farmers in Darfur was an extended drought that was tied to the warming of the Indian Ocean — itself the product of new weather patterns driven by human activity. And then Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his climate-change documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” What does global warming have to do with peace? In the view of the Nobel panel, it “may induce large scale migration and lead to greater competition for the Earth’s resources ... [and] increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states.”
Friday 30 November 2007 OTTAWA: GOVT. LAYS OUT STRATEGY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE
Environment Minister John Baird says Canada will insist that an international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change after it expires in 2012 will have to include both developed countries like Canada and the U.S. but developing nations like China and India as well. Mr. Baird told the House of Commons environment committee that it's wrong to assume that developed nations alone can assume all the burden of reducing greenhouse emissions. The minister says that will be Canada's position at the international environment conference in Bali, Indonesia, Dec. 3-14. Developing nations ratified Kyoto but weren't obliged to meet emissions reduction targets. NDP, Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs on the committee suggested Mr. Baird has little credibility to negotiate in Bali because of the government's ineffective domestic environmental plan
Former Quebec premier Pierre Marc Johnson played a key role in bringing this conference to Montreal in his role as a board member of the Veolia Environment Institute.
The Paris-based think tank was created in 2001. Its mission is to promote environmental research in universities and hold a series of international conferences.
In an interview with The Gazette yesterday, Johnson stressed the conference will not be about rehashing political conflicts over the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
"This is not about Kyoto or no Kyoto. We are talking about major changes in terms of emissions rates over the long term," he said
Wednesday 31 October 2007 Assess climate risk, firms urged Corporate executives and directors face a growing threat of investor lawsuits if they fail to assess and mitigate the risk their companies face from climate change, accounting experts warned yesterday.
Thursday Oct 25, 2007 a class="t2" href="http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=e96fa6c1-1e8c-4563-aafa-edd4da6b6653 onmouseover="return overlib('click to bbc ', LEFT);" onmouseout="return nd();" target="_" > PIERRE MARC JOHNSON, Business community is pushing for action on climate change
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and to the International Panel on Climate Change is a powerful signal that the issue of climate change has reached a "political tipping point," climbing to the top of the agenda of the international community in the fields of politics, business and academia.
Thursday 27 September 2007 Canada appeasing U.S. on global warming treaty, critics say
OTTAWA - The Harper government heads into a major climate change summit in Washington today, promoting a contentious plan that could allow countries such as the United States and China to increase their greenhouse gas pollution under the next international treaty on global warming, a senior aide to Environment Minister John Baird indicated Wednesday.
Tuesday 14 August 2007 MONCTON: PREMIERS CANNOT AGREE ON MAJOR GREENHOUSE INITIATIVES
Canada's 13 provincial and territorial premiers have concluded their annual three-day conference without agreement on major initiatives to check the industrial toxic emissions that cause global warming. They disagreed on the advisability of "cap-and-trade," by which hard ceilings would be imposed on emissions and companies could trade credits for industries under the pollution limits. Provinces including Nova Scotia and British Columbia favour the idea, while Alberta, the chief energy-producing province reiterated its opposition. Twelve of the 13 provinces and territories favoured a proposal for California-style emission standards for vehicles, but Ontario's Dalton McGuinty was opposed. Ontario is the centre of Canada's automobile industry. The premier says a cap-and-trade system would reduce greenhouse gas from industry by 90 megatonnes a year, while a California tailpipe standard would cause a reduction of only eight megatonnes. The premiers did agree in areas such as biofuels and a climate registry reliably to measure emissions.
Monday 30 July 2007 India talks about tackling climate change PERHAPS it was the prospect of monsoon flooding of the kind that has left 800 dead on the Indian subcontinent this month. Or maybe the push came from another of the recent dire predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—for example, that the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus could become seasonal rivers by 2035. Whatever the reason, India has decided to formulate a policy on climate change.
Sunday 29 July 2007ME fires up carbon futures launch
With Chicago climate exchange
Demand growing for green derivatives The Montreal Exchange yesterday gave the long-awaited green light to the launch of a carbon futures contract in partnership with the Chicago Climate Exchange, confident it can lock on to growing demand for environmental derivative products. "The new publicly traded product will be the first of its kind in Canada and will be a very useful vehicle to help large emitters to comply with new CO2 emission rules," ME CEO Luc Bertrand said. Trading should start by yearend.
Tuesday 17 July 2007 Video: Glaciers in Retreat As global warming raises temperatures, glaciers in the Himalayas are melting and South Asia's water supply is at risk. Related Article
Tuesday 26 June 2007 TORONTO: GOVT. REFUSES TO DEVISE NEW CLIMATE PLAN
Canadian Environment Minister John Baird says the federal government won't dismiss out of hand a law approved last week by Parliament which obliges it to respect Canada's emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, but also says it won't draw up a new environment plan different from the existing one. Mr. Baird says the time for inventing climate plans is over and that the government will move to implement what has already been planned. The private Liberal Party member's bill forces the government to explain within two months how it will reduce emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels. The government has already said such a goal is impossible of achievement. The government's own plan aims at cutting greenhouse gases by 20 per cent by 2020.
Mon 25/06/2007 My [Cleo Paskal] Chatham House Briefing Paper has just been released. Thought you might find it interesting. The url is: climatecp.pdf
Saturday 09 June 2007 HEILIGENDAMM: PM SAYS CANADA NEEDS U.S. IN CLIMATE ACCORD
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it would be difficult for Canada to meet its obligations in a new global climate change treaty unless the U.S. and ultimately Mexico were party to it. Mr. Harper told the closing news conference of the G8 summit that unless the Americans are onside, the attempt to meet emissions targets would penalize the Canadian economy, which is why it's so important to persuade the Americans and other major polluters to join the process. Mr. Harper repeated his comparison first made on Thursday that a global accord on greenhouse gases should operate the way the EU approaches the problem, that is that there's an overall target but each member state is fixed its own targets according to its circumstances. The leaders' declaration on the matter on Thursday said that all members should "seriously consider" following the goal fixed by Canada, Japan and the EU of reducing emissions by half by 2050. The prime minister also says he had a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who also attended the summit. Mr. Harper says he raised a range of issues, including climate change, the social responsibilities of business and human rights, including the case of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian jailed in China as a supposed terrorist.
rci HEILIGENDAMM: PM SEES FIRST STEP ON CLIMATE AT G8
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has saluted the agreement on climate change among the eight leaders at the G8 summit in Germany as a welcome first step, adding that although they failed to agree on fixed emissions targets, the fact that they all agreed for the first time that action is required is itself a victory. The language of their declaration on global warming said all members should "seriously consider" following the goal fixed by Canada, Japan and the EU of reducing emissions by half by 2050. Mr. Harper says that world leaders must now set world standards that take account of each nation's own targets. He cited as an example the EU, which has varying targets for its members but which add up to the EU's overall goal of reducing emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. The prime minister says it's normal for developed nations to take on a major share of the burden, but that in the end an accord will have to include everyone to be effective, a process that could take months or years. Earlier, Mr. Harper had a 40-minute meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at which the prime minister raised the human rights issue. Mr. Harper says he suggested that G8 leaders have a democratic duty to allow protests and to tolerate dissent. The prime minister said afterwards that Canada is concerned about "back-sliding" reflected in recent events in Russia. The prime minister said Mr. Putin replied that Canada too has been criticized for human rights failures. The prime minister says he responded he didn't mind the criticism, but that it's important for national leaders to accept and to tolerate the existence of criticism.
Fri 01/06/2007 rci
OTTAWA: CANADA WORKING TO BRING U.S. ONSIDE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The Canadian Press news agency reports that Canada is working closely with European states to coax the U.S. into signing onto a new global climate treaty after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change ends in 2012. CP cites an unnamed European source as explaining the strategy toward the Americans is to find a way to make the process of negotiating less cumbersome. The Kyoto process has so far been conducted by the UN, and a UN conference in Indonesia in December is supposed to set the negotiations into motion. The issue will arise next week at the G8 summit in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for a final communiqué that will set global targets for greenhouse gas reduction and reaffirm the primacy of the talks in Bali. The U.S. dislikes that approach, objecting in particular to the goal of a target of 50 per cent reductions of emissions by 2050. According to CP's source, Canada and Japan are intent upon somehow bringing the American into the process, which would be an inducement to India and China as well. Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons on Tuesday that his government wants an "effective international protocol that includes all nations, with real targets past 2012."
OTTAWA: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SUE GOVT. OVER CLIMATE CHANGE
The Friends of the Earth environmental group has started a lawsuit against the Canadian government for not having respected its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The suit filed at Federal Court of Canada accuses the government of having failed to cut toxic industrial emissions to six per cent under 1990 levels. In 2004, the emissions were in fact 27 per cent higher than in 1990. Friends of the Earth explains that it had no choice but to launch a legal challenge because global warming is the "most urgent crisis ever facing the planet..." The present Conservative Party government of Mr. Harper says the Kyoto emissions reduction targets are impossible to meet and has proposed an alternative plan.
FOR YOUR SERIOUS CONSIDERATION The
National, CTV
News, The
Star, the
Globe, the
Post, La Presse (not available online) front while the
Citizen goes inside with the agreement culminating from climate-change
talks at the G8 conference in Heiligendamm, Germany. Due to ambiguous
wording, the much anticipated climate-change deal, according to most of
the Big Seven, boils down to an agreement whose success hangs in the
diligence of the individual’s commitment. The technical phrasing,
called “a last minute compromise” by the Globe, states that
all members have vowed to “seriously consider” the goal of
halving emissions by 2050. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Stephen
Harper calls the agreement “an important first step,”
British PM Tony Blair hails it as “a major, major step
forward” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that it is "very
great progress and an excellent result." French President Nicolas Sarkozy
is less optimistic, however, and is quoted in the Citizen as saying
“If you want me to say that we could have done better then, yes. I
want to speak frankly.” Similarly, the opposition in Ottawa are
calling it a “watered-down deal”, accusing Harper of failing
to broker a deal between the aggressive measures called upon by European
countries and the Bush administration’s delaying tactics.
The Globe explains that the agreement commits nations, including major
emitters from outside the G8 (such as China), to work toward an agreement
together. They will begin this task at a meeting of environment ministers
in Indonesia later this year. Harper was committed to the talks he and
Merkel had earlier this week and had Canada cited for special mention in
the G8 text. It read that nations agreed to look hard at an idea pursued
by the European Union, and backed by Canada and Japan, that would include
cutting emissions by half by 2050. Today, the final day of the summit,
kicked off with a promising and certainly more decisive plan: the members
of the G8 have pledged to give $60 billion to fight the spread of disease
and poverty in Africa.
Wednesday Jun 6, 2007 Climate change takes world stage
G8 Summit. Harper raises eyebrows by asserting Canada's green plan is tougher than Europe's. Dirty air, heat kill 939 here each year
Prime Minister Stephen Harper held up his government's climate-change plan as a model for the world yesterday, but it was not enough to close the gap between the Canadian and European positions heading into this week's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized countries. ...Harper earned a rebuke from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for abandoning Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. to German business leaders, the prime minister called climate change "perhaps the biggest threat to confront the future of humanity today," and admitted it is now impossible for Canada to meet its Kyoto commitment "without crippling the economy." ...Under the Harper government's plan, made public this spring, Canada has committed to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2050, using a base year of 2006. But a joint summit statement said the EU "has concluded" that developed countries should reduce their emissions by 60 to 80 per cent compared with 1990 - a much steeper cut than that proposed by the Harper plan.
What is the $cost if a country fails Kyoto?
Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 Harper flies to Paris for his first face-to-face meeting with newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has proposed slapping an import tax on countries that do not honour the Kyoto Protocol.
How business is starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help THE current row over climate change sounds all too familiar. Germany, host of this year's G8 summit, is trying to get the world to agree on what to do when the Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse gases runs out in 2012. America, which dislikes the tough targets that the Europeans want the world to sign up to, is proposing separate negotiations between the world's big emitters. Environmentalists accuse it of trying to sidetrack the issue. The line-up is much like the one that led to America's withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement in 2001.
May 23, 2007 Environmentalists doubt UN's billion-tree scheme will ease warming UNITED NATIONS - An ambitious United Nations plan to oversee the planting of one billion trees worldwide - including 50 million in Canada - moved ahead Tuesday despite mounting criticism from arguably unexpected quarters.
Officials at the Nairobi headquarters of the UN's environment wing declared that groups and governments around the world have pledged to exceed the goal - and said the initiative will help fight climate change and poverty.
Canadians not prepared for financial sacrifices to tackle environment, survey says OTTAWA - Canadians have no doubts about the existence of global warming, but they are still reluctant to make financial sacrifices or alter certain lifestyle habits to save the environment, a Finance Department report warned just prior to the 2007 federal budget release.
Tory green plan favours oilpatch, critics charge The Conservative government fended off opposition accusations Tuesday of favouritism for the Alberta oilpatch as various industry groups started raising questions about new federal environmental regulations that make the oilsands the only Canadian sector allowed to increase pollution linked to smog over the next decade.
And what about Canada's flap over the ecofraud? We loved the confrontation between David Suzuki and John Baird; for once Dr. Suzuki struck the perfect tone of disappointed mentor confronting his student's total failure to understand the subject. Climate change will again be on the menu, given the report from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research that Arctic ice is melting much faster than previously predicted see Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Forecast
Tuesday 01 May 2007
Harper defends green plan Prime Minister Stephen Harper jumped to the defence of his embattled environment minister Monday to respond to an escalating storm of criticism at home and abroad over his government’s new plan to tackle
climate change and air pollution.
Monday 30 April 2007
Baird lashes back at Gore's attack Environment Minister John Baird says the negative reviews of his government's new green plan by high-profile celebrities are a "knee-jerk" reaction from people who haven't looked at the policies objectively.
Friday 27 April 2007
Households, economy, targeted in greenhouse plan New industrial facilities and automobile manufacturers in Canada are getting a free ride over the next three years under new federal environmental regulations unveiled Thursday.
Saturday, April 21, 2007 UN experts reject Ottawa's climate-change vision
COST OF EMISSIONS CHEAPER THAN GOVT. SAYS: UN
A UN draft report claims it's possible to reduce global greenhouse emissions in half by 2030 by imposing a carbon tax of between $20 and $50 a per tonne of gas. A carbon tax is an excise tax on the producers of raw
fossil fuels based on their relative carbon content. The report written by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the cost would be lower if the timeframe for achieving the target is lengthened. It won't be officially released until next month but the Canadian Press has obtained a copy. The document suggests regulations and taxes to promote efficiency.
The report predicts that the private sector will refuse to invest in efficiency unless there are incentives such as the carbon tax that are clearer, more predictable, longer-term and more "robust" than current government measures. On Thursday, the Canadian government released a document written by Environment Canada that claims a $195-a-tonne carbon would have to be imposed for Canada to meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change and this would cause dire economic chaos. One of the authors of the UN report is University of Ottawa professor emeritus Philippe Crabbe, who responds that the government's document describes what would happen only if the targets had to be met by next year. Prof. Crabbe says since successive Canadian government have delayed action to cut emissions the Kyoto targets may be indeed out of reach, but that this is no reason to continue not to act.
Have just sent the following (electronic!) letter to the editor of the Gazette:
Dear Sir,
The" words matter" promotion may be your advertising agency's dream scheme, but to those of us who care about the depletion of our forests, it is offensive to see one blank page with some three or four words, and doubly offensive in an issue devoted to "How Green are We?". Shame on you!
Diana & David Nicholson
Feds clueless on global warming: experts The federal government is neglecting the scientific evidence and research on the impact of global warming, a panel of senior Canadian climate experts said on Tuesday.
Baird promises tougher climate plan The Conservative government before the end of this month will roll out one of the world's toughest regimes to battle global climate change, Environment Minister John Baird promised Saturday.
Friday 16 March 2007
B.C.'s premier, Schwarzenegger discuss climate change It's a political plot nobody saw coming: the West Coast's inveterate policy wonk Gordon Campbell and Hollywood's Terminator-turned-"governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger teaming up as the West Coast's climate-action heroes.
Wed1306 Sunday Mar 11, 2007 Climate Change is rarely off the Wednesday Night menu these days and lo! the media, with the Gazette in the lead, are gasping (in shock and awe) "Expect water shortage in 20 years" http://tinyurl.com/3d7ws5
In fairness, this fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC to the groupies) contains far starker warnings than the previous assessments. At least Europe is paying serious attention with signature of an agreement on plans to reduce Member states' ecological footprints. economist.com
On a related topic, and one which is frequently discussed on Wednesday Night (i.e. Wed1299page2.asp), last week Global TV broadcast an extensive report, "Promise Land", on the oil boom in Alberta including consideration of the geopolitical and environmental issues of development of the tar sands, and the impact on greenhouse gas emissions (Click on Monday's Report on: Promise Land)
BBC
The environment
Cleaning up
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