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Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs

World’s top mining companies, including Canada’s Barrick Gold and Teck, pledge net-zero emissions by 2050 – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 6, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com

The world’s biggest mining companies, including Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd., are collectively committing to cut their emissions to net zero by 2050, as they face increasing pressure from investors and environmentalists to mine metals responsibly.

Net zero means companies either emit no greenhouse gases, or offset their emissions by removing a corresponding amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many of the current global climate commitments stem from the 2015 United Nations climate conference in Paris, which saw signatory countries vow to keep a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels.

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How the decarbonization megatrend is disrupting mining investment – by Editor (Mining.com – September 29, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

The mining and metals sector will see sweeping changes from the transition to a low carbon economy out to 2030, says market analyst Fitch Solutions in its latest industry report.

Some of these changes have already begun and will be accelerated in 2021 and beyond as government policy becomes increasingly stringent and investors’ pressure on ESG credentials rises. The transition will require large investments to reduce miners’ emissions and to increase exposure to new growth markets, Fitch points out.

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Four signals from soaring fossil fuels – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – September 30, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Find your favourite indicator of fossil fuel prices. Let’s begin with the price of coal in China, where futures have surged to US$212 a metric tonne, up 20 per cent through September and 300 per cent over the past year.

Natural gas futures approached US$6 per British thermal unit. A litre of gasoline at some Toronto stations hit $1.40, a new high in nominal dollars as the price of crude oil hit US$80 a barrel. So what’s going on and what does it mean?

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Mining is essential to low-carbon transition – by Pierre Gratton (Winnipeg Free Press – September 29, 2021)

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Pierre Gratton is president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada.

WHAT do the green technologies essential to getting us to net-zero, such as solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear energy and electric car batteries, all have in common? A dependence on metals, like nickel, iron, cobalt, uranium, zinc and copper, to function.

The question is not whether we require minerals and metals to reach our climate goals, but rather if Canada will become the supplier the world needs.

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Column: Power is a double-edged sword for global metals sector – by Andy Home (Reuters – September 28, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The world will need a lot more of metals such as copper, nickel and aluminium if it is going to decarbonise. The potential “green” demand boom from more renewable energy, more power infrastructure and more electric vehicles is tomorrow’s promise for such “energy transition” metals.

Yet, as first China and now Europe is discovering, power is a double-edged sword for metals producers and manufacturers. A power crunch in China has idled over two million tonnes of the country’s aluminum production capacity.

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Uranium: what the explosion in prices means for the nuclear industry – by Edward Thomas Jones, Danial Hemmings and Simon Middleburgh (The Conversation – September 24, 2021)

https://theconversation.com/

It is a year since Horizon Nuclear Power, a company owned by Hitachi, confirmed it was pulling out of building the £20 billion Wylfa nuclear power plant on Anglesey in north Wales.

The Japanese industrial conglomerate cited the failure to reach a funding deal with the UK government over escalating costs, and the government is still in negotiations with other players to try and take the project forward.

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OPINION: Coal’s unwelcome revival is bad news for the UN’s crucial climate summit in Glasgow – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 11, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

By now, coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, was supposed to be well on its way to the industrial graveyard. Thanks, you nasty old brute, you gave us a century and a half of cheap electric power; now your time is up, for the sake of the planet.

Yet like a senior citizen with a new heart transplant, coal is getting a second wind and refuses to die. Prices and demand are soaring and fleets of new coal plants are under construction in high-growth parts of the planet.

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Sensible greens would back natural gas – by Gwyn Morgan (Financial Post – September 21, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

In a previous column (July 22) I pointed out that, since switching coal-fuelled power plants to natural gas cuts CO2 emissions in half, exporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to displace coal both benefits our economy and reduces global emissions.

Also: that since converting gasoline and diesel-fuelled vehicles and ships to natural gas cuts emissions by 25 per cent, providing incentives to achieve that could substantially decrease domestic emissions, as well.

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OPINION: Europe’s power crisis is an expensive reminder that renewable energy has its limits – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Europe’s power crisis was just a matter of time – and that time has come. Natural gas and electricity prices are setting record highs virtually every day, and businesses and households have gone from getting annoyed to being terrified as the bills land like hand grenades.

The continent’s power system was an accident waiting to happen, in good part because its purported virtues – vast amounts of climate-friendly renewable energy and waning numbers of climate-unfriendly coal-fired plants – were less robust than advertised.

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Europe’s gas crisis is also a renewables crisis, but there are ready solutions – by Angela Dewan (CNN.com – September 22, 2021)

https://www.cnn.com/

London (CNN Business)European natural gas prices have soared so high that hundreds of millions of people could be facing cold homes or inflated energy bills over winter. There’s also fears of a knock-on impact as carbon dioxide used in food production — a byproduct of fertilizer made with natural gas — also gets more expensive.

Politicians are blaming the surge in prices on an increase in natural gas demand as the world wakes up from the pandemic, supply disruption caused by maintenance, and a less-windy-than-usual summer that saw a drop in wind-generated power.

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Federal election promises for zero-emission vehicles have a catch – by Matt Simmons (The Narwhal – September 14, 2021)

The Narwhal

As the federal election looms, leaders of all political stripes are promising to increase the zero-emission transportation sector through incentives and investments as a key tool to tackle the climate crisis. But there’s a catch.

Positioning Canada as a leader in electrifying the transportation sector also means increasing mineral extraction to fuel that growth. Batteries that propel electric vehicles are powered by minerals like lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel.

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OPINION: Liberals, Conservatives suddenly agree on the need for EV sales quotas. How will they deliver post election? – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – September 8, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada is suddenly headed toward a national quota for electric vehicle sales. Mere months ago, the governing Liberals were still reluctant to commit to a so-called zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

They were deferring to an auto industry that strongly opposes the policy, claiming it would hurt both consumer choice and domestic manufacturing. Now, courtesy of an election campaign in which parties are trying to prove their climate credibility, a surprising cross-partisan consensus has emerged.

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Liberals planning green economy measures, with focus on jobs – by Mark Rendell and Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – September 2, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Liberals are putting a distinctly green lens on their plans for job creation and economic growth, with promises to accelerate the transition toward a low-carbon economy if the party forms government after the Sept. 20 election.

The party platform, published Wednesday, promises a range of new green economy measures, including a 30-per-cent tax credit for clean technology investments and $2-billion to retrain oil and gas workers. It also pledges new strategies for clean-energy home renovations, aimed at kickstarting a “vibrant retrofit economy.”

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IPCC’s ridiculous code red for humanity is a declaration of defeat – by Rex Murphy (National Post – August 11, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

The IPCC has gone code red for humanity. They have hit their loudest alarm bells. Wow. Grab your masks, and head for the exits. This is scary stuff. What dire happening could justify the IPCC reaching for the greatest alarm? There are only two possibilities.

Either Joe Biden has uttered a comprehensible sentence without outside assistance, or, the world is doomed. It has to be the latter because the former is unthinkable.

Before I get to this crisis I should point out that most of us sentenced to work in the news media know what those initials, IPCC, stand for. Contrary to the impression you’d get from reading the newspaper or listening to the news, most ordinary Canadians do not. Which is just one way of saying, they have lives. And allow me to whisper, they probably own pickup trucks.

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Base metals to profit from solar demand – by (MiningWeekly.com – August 10, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The critical minerals sector is poised to become a major benefactor of the increase in global demand for solar power, advisory firm Wood Mackenzie (Woodmac) said this week.

A new report from Woodmac has shown that solar power would have a significant impact on demand for aluminium, copper and zinc, with the usage of all three metals in the sector set to double by 2040.

However, as governments fulfill their commitments to limit global warming to 2 °C and beyond, the need for solar power will become greater and demand for several base metals is expected to surge.

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