Go green or go broke — the Liberals’ new budget does both – by Rex Murphy (National Post – March 30, 2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

In politics, budgets are screenplays for movies that will never get made

Budgets, like Bidens, bore me. Like another in the fellowship of the great minds of our day, I pay no attention to monetary policy. Or to fiscal policy. And what is a budget but a massive tool of that latter? Budgets get as much attention from “communications advisers” — the most empty phrase and occupation of our time — as they do from … people who might know something about the economy. Most likely more. Besides, budgetary promises do not stand up in time, at all.

You want an example? Recall. In 2015, Justin Trudeau “looked straight at Canadians” (his phrase) and in that soft, hushed, mellow tone he struggles to adopt when he’s about to burst from the magma force of his urgent sincerity, promised — “being honest the way I always have” — that by 2019 (four years back for those who are counting), Canada would have a “balanced budget.”

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Biden’s big, bold green spend sends shockwaves around the world, including Canada – by Kyle Bakx (CBC News Calgary – March 8, 2023)

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

Green energy investment could pour into the U.S. from around the globe

U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate bill is only six months old, but its impact on the energy industry around the world continues to grow as pressure mounts on countries to offer similar subsidies toward green energy or risk losing out on valuable investment dollars.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a multi-billion-dollar program that pledges government dollars toward developing low-carbon energy. The policy is aimed at boosting the country’s manufacturing sector and takes aim at China’s dominant position in the clean energy technology supply chain.

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Politics Meets the Minerals Rush at the World’s Biggest Mining Convention – by Charlie Angus (Policy Magazine – March 6, 2023)

March-April 2023

Investors from all over the world are in Toronto this week for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada Conference (PDAC) convention. It is the biggest mining expo in the world. This year’s conference is taking place amid a global rush to secure critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and key base metals such as copper and nickel.

The climate crisis has arrived and our hope for survival is dependent on a dramatic transformation in energy sources. This is why critical minerals are key. They are essential for the development of battery and renewable technology.

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The mining conundrum — responsibly sourcing green technology minerals in conflict zones – by Kim Polley (Daily Maverick – January 29, 2023)

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Responsible sourcing should be at the top of the agenda for multinationals. But many green technologies — which we advocate in our war on climate change — rely on the use of minerals sourced in high-risk areas with poor human rights records.

In the last 12 months, the world came out of a heightened state of pandemic panic and headed directly into climate crisis consciousness. Amid a tornado of messages predicting the end of the world, it’s no wonder that people are scrambling to find someone to blame. And predictably, big business makes an outsized climate catastrophe target.

Practically speaking, stakeholder expectations around safety, environmental management, decarbonisation and corporate responsibility have become increasingly difficult to navigate.

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To get to net-zero, we will need to make mining ‘nature-positive’, says mining council chief – by Oliver Balch (Reuters – January 27, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

January 27 – The field of sustainable business is littered with apparent oxymorons: “clean coal”, “ethical tobacco”, “responsible gambling”, and now, the latest in this illustrious list, “nature-positive mining”.

That’s right. An industry that revolves around “breaking ground” to extract natural resources is anxious to position itself as a defender of the natural environment. It sounds like poppycock, but could it just be possible?

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Go to Texas to see the anti-green future of clean energy (The Economist – January 12, 2023)

https://www.economist.com/

“When someone says we are embracing green energy, it’s like shoving an ice pick through our ears,” says Matt Welch, head of Conservative
Texans for Energy Innovation, another pro-renewables group.
“We just say clean energy.”

or more than 140 years John Davis’s family has owned the Pecan Spring Ranch on the prairie lands of West Texas. He has a photo of his great-great-grandmother, known as “the sheep queen of Texas”, sitting in a horse-drawn carriage beneath a tree that still stands in front of the hay barn.

It’s a tough business to maintain, even with a valuable herd of Wagyu beef cattle to raise. Yet when a renewable-energy developer offered Mr Davis a large payment to put wind turbines on his land, at first the staunch Republican—and former state congressman—turned it down.

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The world is burning more coal than ever before, new report shows – by Ivana Kottasová (CNN.com – December 16, 2022)

https://www.cnn.com/

The global energy crisis caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine has pushed global demand for coal – the most polluting of all fossil fuels – to a record high in 2022, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.

Demand for coal is set to grow 1.2% and top 8 billion metric tons for the first time ever this year, the IEA said in the latest edition of its annual coal report. This record comes only a year after countries agreed to phase down their use of coal at the United Nations’ climate conference in Glasgow.

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Opinion: The Parliamentary Budget Officer just debunked climate alarmism – by Ross McKitrick (Yahoo Finance/Financial Post – December 7, 2022)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

Ross McKitrick is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph and senior fellow of the Fraser Institute.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) recently released a report on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on Canadian GDP growth over the next 80 years. I’ve written previously about the recent economics literature investigating the link (or lack thereof) between global warming and economic growth.

It’s a fascinating topic and I’ve been actively working with on it one of our PhD students for several years. While I would quibble with some aspects of the PBO report, the overall conclusions are not out of line with mainstream thinking on the topic. Which is why the findings are so astonishing and radical compared to what the government has been saying.

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Bankers pour cold water on red hot coal – by Sarah Mcfarlane and Clara Denina (Reuters – November 24, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times. At least when it comes to mining coal. After years of decline, demand for the polluting fossil fuel has surged this year as Europe scrambles to replace Russian gas, and coal miners are making money hand over fist.

With coal prices hitting record highs, companies would normally expand their operations, but projects are being left on the table as most Western banks stand by climate pledges to restrict lending to the sector, according to a dozen mining company executives and investors.

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OPINION: Coal: The black, unbeatable monster at the Egyptian climate summit – and every other one – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 17, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

If you had to distill the theme of almost every UN climate summit into one word, it would be “coal.” Coal is the perennial bogeyman of the Conference of the Parties, as it is at the event’s latest edition, COP27, now under way in Egypt.

By now there is essentially zero debate among governments, climate scientists and even the coal industry itself that holding global average temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is impossible as long as coal remains the single-biggest source of power generation.

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EU levels playing field as Chinese, Asian exporters are required to provide emissions data ahead of carbon tax – by Eric Ng (South China Morning Post – November 16, 2022)

https://www.scmp.com/

Manufacturers in China and elsewhere in Asia will have to furnish carbon emissions data to EU customers from next year ahead of the launch of the world’s first carbon tariff, according to a European Parliament member.

Regulations to level the playing field for imports and domestic products in terms of greenhouse gas emissions kick in next year, when disclosure of emissions of imported goods will be required. From 2026, a carbon tax will be charged in the EU based on the goods’ emissions.

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WGC calls miners to plan for further climate change risks – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 9, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

The World Gold Council (WGC) is urging bullion miners to implement more consistent, systematic planning and wider collaboration, including closer engagement on risks with local communities, to deal with climate-related challenges.

In its Gold and climate change: Adaptation and resilience report, the gold industry’s leading trade body identifies key physical climate-related vulnerabilities of the sector. It also outlines a range of adaptation strategies to support the industry in managing the associated risks.

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The Mining Gap: Critical Minerals and Geopolitical Competition – by Gregory Brew and Morgan Bazilian (Just Security – November 7, 2022)

https://www.justsecurity.org/

This week, world leaders are gathering in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for COP27, the 27th annual United Nations conference on climate change. This year’s conference carries with it the weight of the climate challenge, an enormous threat facing humanity, but also comes at a time of growing volatility in global energy markets, rising energy prices, a food security crisis, and war.

As a result, countries both rich and poor will be focused on immediate security and economic threats. While Russia’s war in Ukraine has convinced policymakers of the necessity of divesting from volatile oil markets, the lack of readily available raw materials and supply chain issues continue to impede rapid transitions toward clean energy.

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Energy crisis the inconvenient consequence of demonizing the oil and gas industry – by Rex Murphy (National Post – November 3, 2022)

https://nationalpost.com/

What did Joe Biden and others like him — including in Canada — expect to happen?

Joe Biden, the Wise, as history must record him, has recently brought his fabled wit’s lacerating whip to “big oil.” Thank you, Joseph.

Naturally the sage of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is enraged beyond simple anger that the price of oil and gas has risen staggeringly, that half of Europe is in a dictator’s energy hammerlock, and that his so-called Middle East allies are rebuking his teary-eyed pleas to increase oil production. He is, as the paradoxical idiom has it, “beside himself.”

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OPINION: The climate hypocrisy of rich countries – by Bjorn Lomborg (Globe and Mail – October 31, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Every year, global climate summits feature a parade of hypocrisy, as the world’s elite arrive on private jets to lecture humanity on cutting carbon emissions.

But this November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt will offer even more breathtaking hypocrisy than usual, because the world’s rich will zealously lecture poor countries about the dangers of fossil fuels – after themselves devouring massive amounts of new gas, coal and oil.

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