2023 set the stage for water, in 2024 we must act
Looking ahead, science tells us that we should expect more destruction from escalating climate change, natural disasters, and environmental degradation. While this reality is unsettling, it should serve as a powerful motivator for both us and the government to take immediate action. We have the knowledge, the framework, the science, and the collective will to safeguard Canadian freshwater resources, and we know Canadians are well aware of the stakes involved.
2024: the year it got really hot
The world crossed the threshold into +1.2° about two years ago, and the general assumption was that we would stay in that zone for at least the next five years. But 2023 ended up at around +1.4°, with huge wildfires, massive floods, and storms, killer heat waves—and Jim Hansen says 2024, with the El Niño boost, will be much worse.
Number of air conditioners in the world expected to triple by 2050, six billion units
The sad truth is that the refrigerant gases helping us adapt to climate change are themselves a leading driver of the crisis. Effective rules and enforcement is needed to keep this sleeping giant of a climate threat on ice.
Lesson learned: climate failures and ozones success
We cannot re-negotiate the Paris Agreement, but we can move in the WTO to ensure all climate actions are protected to allow the use of trade sanctions, where appropriate, to insulate against decisions that penalize climate action as in restraint of trade, and to ensure the Paris Agreement will succeed where previous pacts have failed.
COP28 was different, controversial, and substantive: a great place for Canada
The presence of the petroleum industry brought fresh attention to the event.
Agriculture sector to push hard for unamended passing of carbon tax exemption bill for farmers in 2024
Bill C-234, an act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, passed at third reading with two amendments on Dec. 12.
Senate passes pared-down version of bill on carbon tax exemptions for farmers
Bloc, NDP, and Green MPs who voted with the Conservatives in March will have to take a second look at Bill C-234 now that the Senate has sent it back with significant cuts.
Requiring automakers to make electric vehicles will give us the budget models we need
Canadians deserve relief from high car and gas prices. Thankfully, there is a solution.
Political declarations at COP28 hold promise for food, but countries must deliver
As food systems contribute more than one-third of global emissions, transformational change across food systems is crucial to meeting global climate goals.
Long Live the COPs!
The annual Conference of Parties have been almost perfectly useless in curbing global warming for over 30 years, but may yet have a vital role to play in the years to come.
