Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs – Page 2

Is there a ‘business case’ for defending Canada? – by Kelly McParland (National Post – August 29, 2022)

September 6, 2022

I generally try to avoid arguments about climate change, given that most people already know what they believe. It’s like views on abortion or Donald Trump: this late in the game you’re unlikely to be swayed by anything someone else has to say.

Yet it’s also hard to ignore when certain things happen, like, for instance, a raging fire burning down your house, or a heating bill that’s suddenly 10 times higher than it used to be. As far as the climate crusade goes, if you Google “China coal power generation,” what you get is this:

OPINION:Net zero by 2050? No way. Finding and burning hydrocarbons have become national obsessions since the war started – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – August 31, 2022)

September 6, 2022September 6, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Russia killed off any doubt that it was using energy as a weapon by shutting down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Gazprom’s main conduit for natural gas deliveries to Germany, on Wednesday.

While the shutdown, ostensibly for “maintenance,” is scheduled to last only three days – we will see about that – it comes after the Kremlin-controlled gas exporter reduced Nord Stream’s flows by 80 per cent.

This Australian billionaire wants to be the world’s green hydrogen baron. He’s pushing Canada to join him – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – August 19, 2022)

August 23, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mining mogul Andrew Forrest made billions by building an iron ore empire. Now he wants to help to save the planet by transforming his company into a global leader in a carbon-free future

Australia’s second-richest person does not wait long to begin proselytizing, after taking his seat for an interview on a New York patio. “We’re commercializing the beginning of the end of global warming,” he proclaims.

Andrew Forrest, mining baron turned green prophet, is talking about his push to become the world’s dominant producer of emissions-free hydrogen – a nascent energy source that he believes will unlock a revolutionary shift away from fossil fuels to power heavy industry planet-wide.

The Big Green Lie Almost Everyone Claims to Believe – by Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon (The Epoch Times – August 3, 2022)

August 5, 2022

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Almost every member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, pays homage to the Big Green Lie. So do all the past and remaining Conservative candidates vying to be prime minister of the UK and every candidate currently vying for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

So does virtually all of the mainstream press. The Big Green Lie—that carbon dioxide is a pollutant—is so pervasive that even those considered skeptics—including right-wing NGOs and pundits—generally adhere to the orthodoxy, differing not in their stated belief that CO2 is a pollutant but only in how calamitous a pollutant it is.

OPINION: Why we need to change the narrative on Canada’s energy transition – by Simon A. Fish and Dr. Laurence B. Mussio (Globe and Mail – August 4, 2022)

August 5, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Simon A. Fish is Chair of the BMO Climate Institute. Dr. Laurence B. Mussio is the chair of the Long Run Institute. They were co-chairs at the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario’s Calibrating the Climate Transition Symposium in May.

In the past month, The Globe and Mail produced more than 160 articles on climate change, featuring everything from heat waves, to class-action lawsuits, to plans for sweeping total emissions reductions in the oil and gas and agricultural sectors.

A major theme has focused on the challenge of matching our climate aspirations and emissions targets to stubborn realities. In other words, the effects and trade-offs are both coming into sharper view.

The rich world’s message to the poor: Fossil fuels for me but not for thee – by Bjorn Lomborg (Financial Post – July 27, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

The rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world

The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production, Germany is reopening coal power plants and Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production.

So many European countries have asked Botswana to mine more coal it will have to triple its exports.

Return to coal or reinvent itself? The simmering feud over an Alberta mining town’s future – by Kyler Zeleny (Globe and Mail – July 24, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Crowsnest Pass has not had an operational coal mine for 40 years. Now the struggling community is divided over whether to embrace the resource to save itself

For decades, John Kinnear and his family proudly mined coal from the towering mountains that form the border between Alberta and British Columbia. As a local historian in the nearby community of Crowsnest Pass, he has seen the bounty that coal brought for generations of families.

But he also knows how the country – and world – has soured on the dusty black commodity buried deep within the Rockies, and he has come to understand that point of view. Recently, when he visited Line Creek, a Teck Resources coal mine to the community’s west, he was struck by the desolation left in its wake.

Ten financial actors own half of the world’s oil, gas, coal emissions – study – by Staff (Mining.com – July 24, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://www.mining.com/

Ten financial actors with the most influence on the fossil fuel economy own 49.5% of potential emissions from the world’s largest energy firms, a recent study has found.

In a paper published in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, researchers from Canada, France and New Zealand take a deep look into the CU200, which are the 200 Carbon Underground firms that own 98% of global fossil reserves in the form of oil, gas, or coal.

USGS Scientists Help Address Conflict Mining (United States Geological Survey – June 27, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.usgs.gov/news/

The USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world.

The concept of conflict diamonds or “blood diamonds” emerged in the late 1990s when it became evident that several violent civil wars in Africa were connected to mining and trading of rough diamonds. In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey was asked by the U.S. Department of State to help address illegal diamond mining in Africa.

Since then, the USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world. USGS scientists help detect where illegal mining is likely taking place and develop realistic production numbers to determine a country’s true capacity for mining and exporting various resources.

US not adequately planning for raw materials needed to fuel policy initiatives – Pebble developer – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 19, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.miningweekly.com/

“Pebble is the largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world and
the proposed Pebble mine needs to be part of this solution, instead
of being portrayed as part of the problem by misguided environmental
activists who do not have a credible plan for reaching net-zero,”
Thiessen added.

Northern Dynasty, the company behind the controversial Pebble copper project, in Alaska, has urged politicians, environmental activists and the public to pay attention to concerns raised by the mining industry about a looming copper supply gap.

Commenting on a recent report by S&P Global, entitled ‘The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?’, Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen said the conclusions were consistent with comments and concerns previously raised by the company and other key mining industry companies and organisations.

As Europe bakes, Germany reckons with a return to coal – by Kamyar Razavi (Global News – July 19, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://globalnews.ca/

Europe is scorching. Temperatures across parts of the continent are soaring to dangerous highs again on Tuesday. The high for London will be close to 40 degrees. Berlin will hit 35.

Amid what’s been an intense, dangerous heat wave, there are difficult conversations happening across Europe about the future of energy, and how to prevent even more damage to the planet by burning fossil fuels.

California went big on rooftop solar. Now that’s a problem for landfills – by Rachel Kisela (Los Angeles Times – July 15, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.latimes.com/

California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.

Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle. Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.

Sri Lankan crisis: When green fanatics get taken seriously – by Ravi Shanker Kapoor (Sunday Guardian – April 9, 2022)

July 19, 2022

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Rajapaksas made the fatal mistake of forcing the nation to go organic by outlawing chemical fertilizers in April 2021.

What is more dangerous than the kiss of Judas? Infatuation with intellectuals’ ideas. Sri Lanka is suffering on account of both, but the latter has proved to be more lethal. While its association with China in infrastructure projects weakened it financially, its ban on fertilizers, promoted by green fanatics resulted in the worst economic crisis it has been facing since Independence in 1948.

Opinion: ‘Dr Copper’ has a worrying message about the energy transition – by Daniel Yergin (Financial Times – July 13, 2022)

July 14, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

The writer chaired the new S&P Global study ‘The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?’

As countries try to figure out how to meet their targets for net zero emissions, minerals have become a big target of concern. Several governments and international organisations have expressed alarm about whether there will be sufficient supply to meet the needs of, as the International Energy Agency puts it, moving “from a fuel-intensive to a mineral-intensive energy system”.

There has been much discussion of the lithium and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries. But less attention has been given to copper, though it is the foundation for the energy transition, indeed the “metal of electrification”. A new report focuses on this key role.

EU lawmakers back gas, nuclear energy as sustainable – by Samuel Petrequin and Raf Casert (Associated Press – July 6, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://apnews.com/

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.

As the EU wants to set the best global standards in the fight against climate change, the decision could tarnish the bloc’s image and question the region’s commitment to reaching climate neutrality by 2050.