¶ Published Wednesday, December 2nd In Environment - No Comments »
George Monbiot breaks his self-imposed ban on flying and lands in Toronto to witness the “astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petrostate.”
¶ Published Friday, November 27th In Environment - No Comments »
Should the Climategate revelations change our views about global warming? Robin Hanson (an expert on idea futures) thinks not. Sure, the scandal has exposed the ugly side of academics caught distorting research for political ends, but as Hanson puts it: “It is a shame that academia works this way, and an academia where this stuff didn’t happen would probably be more accurate. But even our flawed academic consensus is usually more accurate than its contrarians, and it is hard to find reliable cheap indicators saying when contrarians are more likely to be right.”
¶ Published Thursday, November 26th In Environment - No Comments »
No question that Climategate is damaging for proponents of global warming theory. But more worrisome is that mainstream media will respond by giving credence to the fevered ravings of conspiracy theorists. So far reactions betray the lack of political will in this world to do what it takes to set the us down the right path — probably owing to public fatigue with the threat of climate change. For those outside Quebec who don’t know him, Jean-François Lisée is a well known author and was once special advisor to the former Quebec premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard. He’s alsoRead the Rest…
¶ Published Wednesday, November 18th In Environment - No Comments »
No big surprise here, but our government is saying climate change laws will likely not be put in place for a few years. I suppose that is what they said in 2000 as well. It seems our government and Canadian society has little appetite for regulating climate change, with the forthcoming Copenhagen, it seems inevitable many climate change hopes will not materialize. CBC article here.
¶ Published Monday, November 16th In Environment - No Comments »
A lot of bleak headlines today about how climate change talks in Copenhagen will fail. But the eulogies are a bit premature. True, over the past year, world leaders have really been lowering the bar. Today, another round of dampening expectations made headlines, as leaders at this week’s APEC meeting are saying that a binding global accord in Copenhagen is out of reach. No one in their right mind believes that next month’s conference will produce a final treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But let’s not fool ourselves. Those leaders were only saying out loud what everyone has beenRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, October 12th In Environment - No Comments »
The Ontario government is seeking comments on a draft Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reporting regulation that would phase in requirements and support the implementation of a cap and trade program that can link to other GHG systems. This proposal has been posted for a 30 day public review and comment period starting October 07, 2009 until November 06, 2009. The regulation proposes the following requirements: Reporting for all regulated sources that are emitting 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) or more per year; Reporting of 2010 emissions in the year 2011, and reporting every following year ; Flexibility toRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, September 28th In Environment - No Comments »
In my latest article for National magazine, I assess some of the challenges facing lawyers and businesses in addressing the growing patchwork of climate change legislation.
¶ Published Monday, September 21st In Environment - No Comments »
While leaders have the power to change things, they rarely do. How do you make world leaders act? They are bogged down by political considerations, powerful lobbies, historical issues and gigantic bureaucracies with entrenched interests. To break the deadlock, the UN is planning on mixing things up at the upcoming Copenhagen climate change conference (Guardian Article). One interesting idea is to strip the leaders of the attachés, assistants, and entourage and place them at a table with the leaders of countries their pollution is affecting most. In effect, they hope to strip the leaders of their protective bubble and return themRead the Rest…
¶ Published Sunday, September 20th In Environment - No Comments »
Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, will be hosting the UN-sponsored global climate treaty negotiations, to be held in Copenhagen in December. In the coming months, expect her to get a lot of media attention. The New York Times profiles her here.
¶ Published Monday, July 6th In Environment - No Comments »
Dianne Saxe discusses the options available to Ottawa and the provincial governments when it comes to climate change legislation. Here’s what she has to say about Ontario’s current situation: “Comments on Ontario’s cap and trade plan are due in three weeks, on July 24. However, the policy context has changed dramatically since Ontario’s discussion paper was drafted, and is continuing to mutate quickly. Canada has done so little for so long that our climate policy has laid us wide open to the serious protectionist provisions in the 1500 page US House of Representatives Bill HR 2454, the American Clean EnergyRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, June 29th In Environment - No Comments »
Clive Crook at FT.com isn’t impressed. In short: “It proposes safety valves that will ease the cap if it threatens to have a noticeable effect on energy prices. It relies heavily on offsets – theoretical carbon reductions bought from other countries or other industries – so that big US emitters will not need to try so hard. It gives emission permits away, and tells utilities to rebate the windfall to consumers, so their electricity bills do not go up. It creates a vastly complicated apparatus, a playground for special interests and rent-seekers, a minefield of unintended consequences – and theRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, May 12th In Environment, Legal Issues - 1 Comment »
The Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs du Québec presented today Bill 42 (in French only) on climate change, which would amend the Environment Quality Act. Once adopted, the Government of Quebec will have the powers necessary for its participation in the cap and trade of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) system, in partnership with the Canadian provinces and the Member States of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). Specifically, the Government will: * establish reduction targets and emission caps, * require reports of all GHG emissions covered by the joint program of the WCI, * set upRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, February 2nd In Environment - No Comments »
Travel back in time to see historical imagery, dive below the surface of the ocean and record a tour of your journeys… Today Google Inc. announced the launch of Google Earth 5.0 which includes a new feature: Ocean in Google Earth which combines sea floor terrain and expert content to provide users with an opportunity to explore some of the most difficult-to-reach parts of the world. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google said: “In discussions about climate change, the world’s oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue. About one-third of the carbon dioxide that we emitRead the Rest…
¶ Published Thursday, January 8th In Environment - No Comments »
A good point was made below on the need for more humility — nuance even — in the debate on how to deal with the increase in greenhouse gases. What’s also needed is good reporting. There might be evidence of an increase in plant growth, but what does that really mean? Are they toxic algae, possibly responsible for depleting the sea of its oxygen and killing ocean life? The booming biosphere argument also fails to address other worrying threats, such as the acidification of the sea. There’s much about this complex ecosystem that we don’t understand, as the Economist arguesRead the Rest…
¶ Published Saturday, December 20th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
In September 2008, in an effort to draw public attention to UK government support for new coal-fired electricity projects, Greenpeace activists painted Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name on a smokestack at the power plant. They were charged for causing criminal damage during their protest. The company, E.ON, claimed that the paint cost more than £30,000 (US$50,000) to remove. The judgment : the activists were cleared. The British jury accepted a lawful-excuse defense for property damaged with the intention of averting even greater damage from climate change: in other words, the “climate-change defense” (as described in the NY Times). It’s uncertain how other courts will follow this. But it certainly illustrates the challengesRead the Rest…
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