¶ Published Tuesday, December 29th In Environment - No Comments »
The Ontario Securities Commission has issued Notice 51-717 Corporate Governance and Environmental Disclosure, which outlines OSC plans to enhance compliance by reporting issuers (other than investment funds) with corporate governance and environmental disclosure requirements. The Notice is part of the OSC’s corporate sustainability reporting initiative. The OSC is also giving itself a year to develop guidance for issuers, after consulting stakeholders, on compliance with environmental disclosure requirements set out in National Instrument 51-102. The aim is to publish guidelines by December 2010, so that reporting issuers have enough time to consider it in preparing their 2010 disclosure documents.
¶ Published Monday, December 28th In Design & Features - No Comments »
We have just pushed out a small feature. When you search for an item in Nimonik, you can now filter the results by Legislation, Topic, or Updates. This makes it easier to find what you are looking for fast. We are working on search in registers, expect it soon.
¶ Published Saturday, December 26th In Environment - No Comments »
Neat little video about deforestation. Maya Lin – Unchopping a Tree from What is Missing? Foundation on Vimeo.
¶ Published Thursday, December 24th In Environment - No Comments »
To follow-up on our last post, Copenhagen was a disaster. There are many possible motives, but one observer claims China blatantly sabotaged the talks. See this Guardian article, but here is the crux of his statement: The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful “deal” so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen. China’s strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look asRead the Rest…
¶ Published Wednesday, December 23rd In Environment - No Comments »
Both environmentalists and climate change skeptics should read this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Nigel Lawson, who for years was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatcher’s Government. Lawson is long-time critic of the Kyoto Protocol and, for a while at least, sided firmly with global warming skeptics. He’s nuanced his arguments in the last few years recognizing now that global warming is a reality that will have a negative, albeit moderate, impact on us. But he has little time for alarmist and apocalyptic statements from climatologists and climate change policy advocates. Lawson proposes we “abandon theRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, December 22nd In Video - No Comments »
Last summer, I had the chance to sit down with my friend Christian Matossian at ÉEM. He is their stakeholder engagement director. Stakeholder engagement is becoming more and more important to modern-day business. Top-down management simply does not hold water, partners, communities and organizations need to be included in discussion right from the start. Some legislation is now forcing businesses to actively consult with affected parties prior to development or expansion work. Take a look at our video where we talk about the return on investment of stakeholder engagement, its increasing importance and other items.
¶ Published Sunday, December 20th In Environment - No Comments »
The oilseeds in Alberta are one of the world’s largest environmental dangers. Not only are the greenhouse gas emissions astronomical, the tailing ponds can be seen from space and the nearby rivers are heavy in toxic metals. But, the same could be said of 1960s pulp and paper operations across the country. What did it take to clean up the pulp and paper industry? Leadership from government and pressure from local people. Something we are unfortunately short on. The tar-sands have very deep pockets and they push hard for less government oversight, but at the end of the day it isRead the Rest…
¶ Published Saturday, December 19th In Environment, Legal Issues - No Comments »
Not sure how productive Copenhagen was, but this blow by blow account of the negotiations has Obama getting down in the trenches and making things happen, good read. Any agreement on emissions targets has two very large issues to confront: Attaining the targets and Verification of claims that targets were met. For example, most countries signed onto Kyoto, but pretty much none have reached the goals set out under the document. In fact, Europe has had carbon emissions increase, so what does this say about the power of these “binding” agreements. If no one enforces the application of an agreement,Read the Rest…
¶ Published Friday, December 18th In Environment - No Comments »
The team at Environmental and Engineering Magazine graciously allowed us to write an article last summer, it was published in their September issue, which can be found here. The article is title, Ontario’s new Green Energy Act makes energy from biogas even more economically attractive by Yves Faguy on page 54. The team at ESEMag also organizes the CANECT tradeshow in Toronto, visit them there.
¶ Published Thursday, December 17th In Environment - No Comments »
We have previously mentioned that there may be more important issues in the world today than climate change, malaria is one of them. The disease kills thousands of people every year and dramatically slows the economic growth of many african countries by keeping children out of school and parents sick at home. Some climate change enthusiasts claim that increased global temperature will lead to an increase in Malaria, this is simply false – for a variety or reasons. Malaria is not a tropical disease, it used to be quite prevalent in Canada, and its eradication has to do with human effortsRead the Rest…
¶ Published Wednesday, December 16th In Environment - No Comments »
Monbiot tries not to get charmed by London Mayor Boris Johnson. The exchange illustrates that while green politics are about achieving environmental goals, a key ingredient remains the simmering ideological feud about consumerism. By the way check out Johnson’s reaction at 1:35 when his Rio counterpart discusses the importance of reducing meat consumption.
¶ Published Wednesday, December 16th In Environment - No Comments »
Aeronautics is a key high technology sector in Quebec. All in all it accounts for an estimated 250 companies and 40 000 jobs, mostly concentrated in the Montreal region. And another thing: it’s estimated that 80 per cent of its production is exported. Has someone explained to Jean Charest that the aviation industry accounts for 4-9% of the total climate change impact of human activity?
¶ Published Wednesday, December 16th In Environment - No Comments »
Eric Reguly of the Globe and Mail reports from Copenhagen that Canada is clearly in the proverbial doghouse. And indeed, one gets the feeling it’s Canada’s amateur hour at the talks. Still, the seemingly unanimous chorus of disapproval is odd, considering that our reduction targets are broadly similar to those of the U.S. But the difference is: Canada ratified Kyoto. The Americans didn’t. They took their licks when the Bush administration decided to withdraw U.S. support for the Protocol. Defenders of Canada’s position tend to argue that we must not share the burden alone, or that China should do more.Read the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, December 15th In Environment - No Comments »
Stephen McIntyre is the Toronto-based editor of Climate Audit, a blog that brings a critical perspective to climate data. He was recently profiled in this Macleans article and in a Toronto Star piece this weekend. Interestingly, according to the article, McIntyre was mentioned over 100 times in the Climategate leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. The suggestion is that McIntyre’s work is one of the motivations behind the suppression of data by climate change advocates involved in the scandal. Fans say he at least has the merit of holding scientists accountable — never a badRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, December 14th In Environment - No Comments »
It’s like we were lepers or something. More fallout from the fake press release and, it now appears, the fake reaction from the Ugandan delegation that we referenced below. It seems our Environment Minister Jim Prentice can barely manage a photo op with the United States’ Energy Secretary. I understand that every government has a PR machine, but this is ridiculous — proof positive that Canada is seriously lacking in the gravitas department. One does get a sense that the Feds are panicking and running around with their heads cut off. In a feeble attempt to deliver a substantive comment,Read the Rest…
