Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs – Page 10

Canada has a quarter of world’s soil carbon. Keeping it in the ground could curb climate change, experts say – by Inayat Singh and Alice Hopton (CBC News Science – November 10, 2021)

April 1, 2022November 15, 2021

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

Canada has 384 billion tonnes carbon stored in peatland and other soils, new study has found

Canada stores about a quarter of the world’s soil carbon, according to a new study that puts a spotlight on the country’s role in protecting that carbon to help prevent further climate change.

Those carbon-rich soils are found especially in peatland: boggy wetlands in northern Ontario and parts of Manitoba that are filled with accumulated plant matter that’s been collecting over thousands of years.

Unfettered climate alarmism on full display at COP26 – by Conrad Black (National Post – November 14, 2021)

November 15, 2021

https://nationalpost.com/

A week after the Glasgow climate conference opened, 100,000 demonstrators marched to denounce the delegates as frauds who would not impose the revolution required in fossil fuel elimination to save the planet. The inevitable Swedish teenage climate protester Greta Thunberg called it, “Two weeks of business as usual: blah, blah, blah.”

Fortunately, she is correct: the Glasgow commitments are not binding and no one will pay any attention to them. Our government leaders are sufficiently intelligent to know that drastic reductions of carbon emissions are not, in fact, desirable, but they are not sufficiently courageous to tell the truth to the vast, brain-washed, brain-dead number of deluded climate alarmists who have bought into the bunk that the end is nigh.

Ford is right: Ontario has the right stuff to lead on electric vehicles – Star Editorial Board (Toronto Star – November 11, 2021)

November 12, 2021

https://www.thestar.com/

Can Ontario become a one-stop shop in electric vehicle manufacture unlike any other market in all of North America? Premier Doug Ford thinks so. And in the abstract, he makes a good case. In the specific, there are major hurdles to be overcome.

Consider, first, the long-troubled Ring of Fire, the much touted and frequently stymied reserve of mineral riches in the James Bay Lowlands. The Ford government’s economic outlook of a week ago promised that the Ring of Fire, with its reserves of nickel, cobalt, manganese and more, will play a key role in the future of clean manufacturing in Ontario.

Climate protesters actually demanding global blackouts – by Lorrie Goldstein (Toronto Sun – November 6, 2021)

November 9, 2021

https://torontosun.com/

Let’s examine how Canada’s most successful project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would never have happened if the climate protesters marching on the streets at the UN climate summit in Glasgow had their way.

Between 2003 and 2014, the Liberal government of Ontario under premier Dalton McGuinty eliminated the use of coal to produce 25% of its electricity. As the Liberals noted, this was single largest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in North America at the time.

China’s Climate Goals Hinge on a $440 Billion Nuclear Buildout – by Dan Murtaugh and Krystal chia (Bloomberg News – November 2, 2021)

November 8, 2021

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Nuclear power once seemed like the world’s best hope for a carbon-neutral future. After decades of cost-overruns, public protests and disasters elsewhere, China has emerged as the world’s last great believer, with plans to generate an eye-popping amount of nuclear energy, quickly and at relatively low cost.

China has over the course of the year revealed the extensive scope of its plans for nuclear, an ambition with new resonance given the global energy crisis and the calls for action coming out of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.

Biggest polluters missing from COP26 pledge to phase out coal – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – November 5, 2021)

November 8, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A new global pact to transition away from coal power, announced on Thursday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, has been compromised by the refusal of the world’s biggest emitters to sign on.

The host British government has made it a primary goal of the United Nations conference to “consign to history” the fuel currently responsible for about 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, and succeeded in getting some heretofore coal-friendly or coal-reliant countries – such as Indonesia, Poland, South Korea and Vietnam – to be among more than 40 nations joining the agreement.

Greta Thunberg, other climate change activists in Glasgow slam ‘greenwashing’ and ‘false solutions’ – by Eve Hartley and Ben Adler (Yahoo News – November 3, 2021)

November 8, 2021

https://news.yahoo.com/

GLASGOW, Scotland — Climate activist Greta Thunberg stormed out of an event at the U.N. Climate Change Conference on Wednesday afternoon, where officials and business leaders were discussing how to ensure that markets for trading carbon offsets actually achieve the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Swedish teenager, who was in the audience at a panel discussion, left the venue saying, “Thanks for greenwashing,” after a moderator thanked her for attending the session.

Ontario can be a leader in climate change action solutions, says report – by Staff (Sudbury.com – November 4, 2021)

November 5, 2021

https://www.sudbury.com/

Ontario Chamber of Commerce calls on governments to keep investing in net-zero technologies

Ontario has certain competitive advantages to confront the climate change crisis that can bring about clear economic and environmental benefits for the world.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has released a report – The Climate Catalyst: Ontario’s Leadership in the Green Global Economy – that takes a snapshot of what provincial organizations are doing to transition to a net-zero economy and what government policymakers can do to encourage more sustainable investment and innovation.

OPINION: Greenwashing is real as companies and funds ride the ESG express. The goal is to make it rare – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 5, 2021)

November 5, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Two buzzwords feature in virtually every event, interview, news release, bit of commentary and protest at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow: “net-zero” and “greenwashing.” The more you hear about the former, the more you hear about the latter. There seems to be a direct correlation between the two.

“Net-zero” refers to the commitments made by most countries, and many big companies, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. “Greenwashing” refers to any efforts by countries and companies to exaggerate their environmental credentials – the greener-than-thou approach.

An interview with Bjorn Lomborg — a rare breath of fresh air in the climate debate – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – November 5, 2021)

November 5, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

‘Environmental journalists have become PR persons for green movements and that leads us to become poor because we end up with bad decisions’

Two weeks of climate change alarmism is in full throttle and Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill to send 277 delegates and 17 press aides to attend the gigantic COP26 conference in Glasgow, as world leaders are lining up to make long-term announcements, with few specifics on how, or if, they will be implemented, or what the consequences might be.

Few are able to provide a counterbalance to all this as well as climate economist Bjorn Lomborg.

Green energy can’t become a reality without critical minerals – by Brian Menell (Fortune Magazine – November 3, 2021)

November 4, 2021

https://fortune.com/

Brian Menell is the chairman and CEO of TechMet, a private industrial company that is building controlling or significant minority positions in projects across the technology metal supply chain.

As delegations convene in Glasgow for the UN COP26, there is no avoiding the fact that for climate activists, there is widespread dissatisfaction. The anger is not unreasonable. It is generally understood that major economies are failing in their pledges under the 2015 Paris Accords to halve emissions.

China’s President Xi Xingping is probably not attending, while Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has already bowed out. He has also declined to sign onto the Global Methane Pledge. President Biden is in Scotland, but the U.S. Congress still hasn’t passed two major spending bills with numerous climate provisions.

Terence Corcoran: COPOUT26 — Face, farce and fiction, from Greta to Trudeau to Modi – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – November 3, 2021)

November 4, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

There is no way to remove fossil-fuel emissions from the world without causing economic chaos

After just two days, the world has been drowning in COP26 climate hysteria delivered by politicians, corporate leaders and activists. Staying afloat through the onslaught, hanging on to lifeboats or, alternatively, fleeing killer wildfires and ideological dust storms, requires constant vigilance, awareness and an ability to distinguish fact from fiction and farce.

We begin with the farce, or in this case, f(arse) as staged by media climate star Greta Thunberg who led a group of teenage scientists in a rousing rendition of the latest hymn to a new world order.

Opinion: Renewables are making Europe energy-poor – by Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam (Financial Post – November 3, 2021)

November 3, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

With the recent rise in the price of natural gas in Europe to five times where it was earlier this year, expect to see many more Europeans, including Brits, plunged into “energy poverty” — too poor to pay their utility bills on time and/or keep their homes adequately warm.

Why is not hard to grasp: from Greece to Great Britain and everywhere in between, the European electricity grid is increasingly de-linked from reliable, affordable fossil fuels and hooked up to more expensive and intermittent wind and solar projects.

UN at COP26: “Enough of mining…we are digging our own graves” – by Frik Els (Mining.com – November 2, 2021)

November 3, 2021

https://www.mining.com/

It did not take long for COP26 to turn into a farce this week with UN Secretary General António Guterres pleading with the gathered highnesses and excellencies to declare enough is enough.

Socialist party ex-PM of Portugal, Guterres delivered a rousing 10-minute speech at the opening ceremony saying (around the 0:45 mark) “we face a stark choice – either we stop it or it stops us”:

China Hurries to Burn More Coal, Putting Climate Goals at Risk – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – October 28, 2021)

October 29, 2021October 29, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/

LINFEN, China — Desperate to meet its electricity needs, China is opening up new coal production exceeding what all of Western Europe mines in a year, at a tremendous cost to the global effort to fight climate change.

The campaign has unleashed a flurry of activity in China’s coal country. Idled mines are restarting. Cottage-sized yellow backhoes are clearing and widening roads past terraced cornfields. Long columns of bright red freight trucks are converging on the region to haul the extra cargo.