‘Green fatigue’ could lead to the R&D we need – by Bjorn Lomborg (Financial Post – October 31, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

The high-cost climate policies we have now need to be replaced by a search for cheap green fuels the world will switch to voluntarily

As climate policy increasingly drives up living costs with next to no results, voters are becoming wearier of expansive — and expensive — green promises. We can only hope this backlash could lead to better, cheaper and more effective measures.

After dealing with climate activists blocking roads and gluing themselves to airport runways, celebrities flying private jets while telling the rest of us to take the bus, and climate policies that cost the world but deliver little, voters are viewing climate policies with greater skepticism.

Read more

Opinion: The bill is coming for net zero — and it’s big, both politically and economically – by Shannon Joseph (Financial Post – October 15, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Net zero talk is all about climate dividends and green opportunity. It’s time to get real about what doubling the electricity supply will cost

Governments across Canada and around the world have been promoting both electrification and net zero. That’s fine, go for it. But please stop saying it’s going to be cheap. It isn’t. And voters will find out.

Today, electricity fulfills about 20 per cent of our energy needs. That means 80 per cent of the energy Canadians rely on is from direct use of natural gas, refined petroleum products and other fuels. What is being proposed in Canada’s electricity strategy is not just fewer or even no emissions from our electricity systems. It is to have electricity provide that other 80 per cent.

Read more

Opinion: We are wasting $2 trillion a year chasing ‘green’ fantasies – by Bjorn Lomborg (New York Post – August 11, 2024)

https://nypost.com/

Despite much hype, the much-vaunted green energy transition away from fossil fuels isn’t happening. Achieving a meaningful shift with current policies turns out to be unaffordable. We need to drastically change policy direction.

Globally, we are already spending almost $2 trillion annually to try to force an energy transition. Over the past decade, solar and wind energy use have increased to their highest-ever levels. But it hasn’t reduced fossil fuels — on the contrary, we have added even more fossil fuels over the same time.

Read more

It’s past time for the Trudeau government to follow through on its promise to stop exporting this polluting energy source – by Jennifer Cole (Toronto Star – August 10, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Every summer wildfires devastate communities. Last summer it was Kelowna, B.C., this year it’s Jasper., Alta. And yet, Canada still exports coal, a fossil fuel contributing to climate change and wildfires.

According to researchers, the ferocity and frequency of wildfires are exacerbated by the effects of human-caused climate change and the burning of the above-mentioned fossil fuels.

Read more

Time for the climate insanity to stop – by Conrad Black (National Post – August 10, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

We have been racing to destroy our standard of living to avert a crisis that never materialized

We must by now be getting reasonably close the point where there is a consensus for re-examining the issue of climate change and related subjects.

For decades, those of us who had our doubts were effectively shut down by the endless deafening repetition, as if from the massed choir of an operatic catechism school, of the alleged truism: “98 per cent of scientists agree …” (that the world is coming to an end in a few years if we don’t abolish the combustion engine).

Read more

Mining M&A stokes coal race against cleaner power – by Antony Currie (Reuters – June 20, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, June 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Coal is doomed, or so the energy thesis goes. Many banks, insurers and investors have backpedalled from or abandoned the carbon-belching fossil fuel, prompting companies that excavate it to complain they cannot get mainstream or affordable financing.

One corner of the industry, however, is burning strongly: the coking, or metallurgical, variety used to make steel. For sellers, it’s a diamond underneath the growing pile of mining M&A. Buyers, however, are in a race against low-emissions alternatives to justify their strategies.

Read more

UN chief warns of ‘highway to climate hell’ as global temperatures rack up 12th straight heat record – by Kate Allen (Toronto Star – June 6, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

As the planet notched a new hot streak and scientists predicted another grim milestone on the horizon, the secretary-general of the UN warned Wednesday that the world needs “an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”

Europe’s climate agency announced that May marked the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures, a fevered year that startled many scientists because of the dramatic margins by which old records were broken. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization predicted that at least one of the next five years is likely to temporarily break the 1.5 C warming threshold.

Read more

Global coal phase-out to cost between $200 billion, $2 trillion – study – by Staff (Mining.com – May 16, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Over $200 billion will be given as compensation to workers and local communities affected by coal phase-out programs globally, new research has found. This estimate excludes India and China, as the two largest coal users currently do not have phase-out plans.

According to a recent paper in Nature Communications, if China and India decide to phase out coal as fast as needed to reach the Paris climate targets and pay similar compensation, it would cost upwards of $2 trillion.

Read more

EU Policy. More than 70% of key resources imperilled by climate – report – by Marta Pacheco (Euro News – April 30, 2024)

https://www.euronews.com/

Global production of crucial raw materials may be at risk of disruption due to climate change and businesses need to find adaptation solutions in order to timely deliver clean technologies for the green transition. More than 70% of copper, cobalt and lithium, key critical raw materials needed for the clean energy transition driven by the EU, are at risk of facing supply disruption due to climate change, according to a new analysis.

Countries leading cobalt and lithium production — Australia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Peru — are experiencing a rise in drought, putting at risk 74% of cobalt and lithium production by 2050, a report by the multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published today (April 30) revealed.

Read more

Washing away the climate lunatics – by Conrad Black (National Post – April 27, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Canada at risk of turning into Europe

I have written here and elsewhere countless times before of the dangers of responding prematurely to alarmist concerns about climate change. Dr. Benny Peiser of the British Global Warming Policy Foundation spoke to the Friends of Science Society in Calgary earlier this month, warning that Europe’s extremist net zero carbon emission policies may get to Canada even though they are now running into extreme problems in Europe.

The North American media has not much reported on the widespread and often violent farmer protests in Europe, which has caused every government that has been put to the test to scale back their aggressive climate change policies.

Read more

Bjorn Lomborg: Why solar and wind power aren’t winning (Financial Post – April 17, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

All-in costs too high once you count fossil fuel and battery backups, land requirements and damage their equipment does

We are constantly being told that solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of electricity. Yet governments around the world felt they had to spend US$1.8 trillion on the green transition last year.

Wind and solar only produce power when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. When they are not, electricity from these sources is infinitely expensive and back-ups are needed. This is why fossil fuels still account for two-thirds of global electricity and why, on current trends, we are a century away from eliminating their use in electricity generation.

Read more

Climate warrior Jane Goodall isn’t sold on carbon taxes and electric vehicles – by John Paul Tasker (CBC News Politics – April 13, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

‘It’s not something I endorse,’ British primatologist says of carbon taxes

World-renowned primatologist and climate activist Jane Goodall says carbon pricing schemes like the one Canada has deployed aren’t a silver bullet to solve the pressing threat of climate change.

Speaking to CBC News during the Ottawa stop of her cross-country tour of Canada this week, Goodall said the jury’s out on whether levying a consumer price on emissions will meaningfully improve the climate picture over the long term. Goodall, who just turned 90, said a carbon tax can seem punitive to consumers — making a measure to fight climate change seem like a costly chore.

Read more

Coal, the Dirtiest Fossil Fuel, Is Preparing for a Long Goodbye (Bloomberg News – March 23, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here. More than two years after climate negotiators first attempted to consign coal to history, the dirtiest fossil fuel is having a moment.

Thanks to a combination of China’s energy insecurity — pushing Beijing back to trusted power sources — plus rising Indian demand, the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine and faltering international programs to wean developing economies off fossil fuels, coal is proving remarkably resilient. Output hit a record last year, and producers are preparing for a future where they will be required for decades yet to balance renewable energy.

Read more

Some minerals are ‘critical’ to the digital economy, but current prices don’t reflect that – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Subury – March 04, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Junior mining companies struggle to raise money as prices for nickel, lithium, graphite sink

For almost a century now, players from across the mining industry — big or small, Canadian or international — have been gathering in Toronto annually to talk about capital, technical innovations, and market trends.

This year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention is no different, with some of Canada’s critical mineral explorers hoping to close deals that will help overcome a tough year in the capital markets.

Read more

Expert says green energy proponents have ‘delusions of grandeur’ – by David Staples (Edmonton Journal – February 16, 2024)

https://edmontonjournal.com/

Had enough of advocates for green energy technology who promise the sun and the moon in terms of efficiency and cost savings only to have this new tech crap out the moment it’s needed most?

Fed up with an armada of state-of-the-art electric buses where none of the buses work nearly as well as promised and at least half of them are broken down in the garage at any given time?

Read more