nationalobserver--2020-11-24--Fossil fuels will decline but remain big player in Canada's energy use by 2050: report

The Canada Energy Regulator says reaching net-zero emissions over the next 30 years will to require a much more aggressive transition away from oil and gas .
The annual Energy Futures report released Tuesday comes just a few days after the federal government tabled a bill to enshrine into law its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 .
But the report projects that even with many more policies to curb emissions than are currently in place , oil and gas would still make up nearly two-thirds of energy sources three decades from now .
`` Achieving net-zero ( greenhouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an accelerated pace of transition away from fossil fuels , '' the report says .
Net-zero means either no emissions are produced , or any that are produced are absorbed by nature or technology so no more are added to the atmosphere , where they contribute to global warming .
• This Heiltsuk activist wants sovereignty and self-reliance for her community Regulator CEO Gitane De Silva told The Canadian Press in an interview that the goal of the report is n't to comment on existing policy , but to paint a picture of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of assumptions .
`` Really , our hope is that this information will help inform that policy process going forward , '' she said .
The 104-page report looks at two potential scenarios for energy use in Canada .
One involves using only the climate policies already in place .
Another `` evolving scenario '' adds in the impacts of expanding those policies , including hiking the carbon tax , lower market prices for oil and gas , and lower costs to transitioning to renewables like wind and solar .
The current carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at $ 50 per tonne of emissions produced .
The government is to review it at that point .
The regulator 's report looks at what would happen if the carbon tax was hiked to $ 125 a tonne by 2050 .
Under the status quo scenario , demand for oil and gas remains relatively stable over the next three years .
In the `` evolving scenario , '' oil and gas demand peaked in 2019 .
It will fall 35 per cent by 2050 but will still account for 64 per cent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emissions over the next 30 years will to require a much more aggressive transition away from oil and gas .
# cdnpoli # ClimateChange # GHG # climatecrisis Canada currently gets about one-sixth of its energy from electricity , about 20 per cent of which comes from burning fossil fuels .
In the evolving policy scenario , the report projects electricity will generate more than one-quarter of Canadian energy by 2050 , and that fossil fuels will provide about 10 per cent of that .
Darren Christie , the chief economist at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much more uncertainty to this year 's projections , because fuel consumption and production fell substantially during the pandemic restrictions .
He says it 's also not entirely clear how , or if , the country 's work and commuting habits will return to the pre-pandemic normal .
`` It really changes our starting point , '' he said .
Overall energy use is down six per cent because of the pandemic , and oil production in Canada is down about seven per cent .
The evolving scenario projects that crude oil and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 17 and 18 per cent by 2039 , but will then start to fall , dropping seven or eight per cent by 2050 .
De Silva notes that if the three oil and gas pipelines under construction get finished — Keystone XL , Trans Mountain and Enbridge Line 3 — they will together be the final pipelines Canada needs to build to handle the projected growth and fossil fuel production before it begins to decline .
The report suggests Canada will also have to seriously pick up the pace on electric vehicles to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the evolving scenario , the report projects only half of the passenger vehicles sold will be electric by 2050 , a decade after Canada wants them all to be electric .

The Canada Energy Regulator says reaching net-zero emissions over the next 30 years will require a much more aggressive transition away from oil and gas. The annual Energy Futures report released Tuesday comes just a few days after the federal government tabled a bill to enshrine into law its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. But the report projects that even with many more policies to curb emissions than are currently in place, oil and gas would still make up nearly two-thirds of energy sources three decades from now. "Achieving net-zero (greenhouse gas) emissions by 2050 will require an accelerated pace of transition away from fossil fuels," the report says. Net-zero means either no emissions are produced, or any that are produced are absorbed by nature or technology so no more are added to the atmosphere, where they contribute to global warming.
Regulator CEO Gitane De Silva told The Canadian Press in an interview that the goal of the report isn't to comment on existing policy, but to paint a picture of where things could go using a variety of assumptions. "Really, our hope is that this information will help inform that policy process going forward," she said. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions The 104-page report looks at two potential scenarios for energy use in Canada. One involves using only the climate policies already in place. Another "evolving scenario" adds in the impacts of expanding those policies, including hiking the carbon tax, lower market prices for oil and gas, and lower costs to transitioning to renewables like wind and solar.
The current carbon tax is to stop rising in 2022 at $50 per tonne of emissions produced. The government is to review it at that point. The regulator's report looks at what would happen if the carbon tax was hiked to $125 a tonne by 2050. Reaching net-zero emissions over the next 30 years will to require a much more aggressive transition away from oil and gas. #cdnpoli #ClimateChange #GHG #climatecrisis Under the status quo scenario, demand for oil and gas remains relatively stable over the next three years. In the "evolving scenario," oil and gas demand peaked in 2019. It will fall 35 per cent by 2050 but will still account for 64 per cent of all energy used. Canada currently gets about one-sixth of its energy from electricity, about 20 per cent of which comes from burning fossil fuels. In the evolving policy scenario, the report projects electricity will generate more than one-quarter of Canadian energy by 2050, and that fossil fuels will provide about 10 per cent of that.
Darren Christie, the chief economist at the Canada Energy Regulator, says COVID-19 added much more uncertainty to this year's projections, because fuel consumption and production fell substantially during the pandemic restrictions. He says it's also not entirely clear how, or if, the country's work and commuting habits will return to the pre-pandemic normal. "It really changes our starting point," he said.


nationalobserver--2020-11-24--Biggest hurdle for fish harvesters is buying into the industry, study finds

When Nathan Bennett looks at B.C.
’ s fisheries , he sees problems — and not only those associated with low stocks .
He also worries about the people who catch the fish .
“ There have definitely been some challenges related to the resource itself , ” explained the B.C.-based independent fisheries researcher and consultant .
More than 80 species of fish and shellfish are harvested in the province .
While some are struggling , such as wild salmon , others , such as halibut and hake , are doing relatively well .
“ But the biggest challenge for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ability to get into the industry and their ability to afford the costs of being able to go out fishing.
” That 's one of the key findings of a study released this month by researchers at the University of British Columbia , in collaboration with two community development organizations and the Nuu-chah-nulth Fisheries Program .
Co-authored by Bennett , the project surveyed independent , small-scale fish harvesters across the province to look at the barriers between them and the fish .
Often , low stocks are not the biggest impediment , Bennett @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the licences and quota harvesters must have before they can head out to sea .
• This Heiltsuk activist wants sovereignty and self-reliance for her community “ No matter what status the stock is at , the question remains as to who the remaining fish should go to .
Should they go to Indigenous fishers first , based on their ( Aboriginal ) rights ?
Should local independent fish harvesters get the next kick at the can , because they are adjacent to the resource ?
Or should any individual or corporation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the available licence and quota ?
” he said .
Licences and quota are regulatory tools used by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to manage the fisheries .
Licences give fish harvesters access to a specific fishery , while quota determines how many fish from that fishery the harvester can catch .
For instance , a halibut harvester needs a halibut licence to enter the industry .
But each year , before heading out to the fishing grounds , they also must purchase a quota before they can actually catch fish .
In most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anyone — not necessarily the person actually catching the fish — and their price is speculative .
In other words , their cost is determined by how much people are willing to pay for licences and quota , not the market value of the fish .
It 's a situation where , for the most valuable fisheries such as halibut or prawn , licences and quota can be worth up to several million dollars .
Because those prices are far too high for most harvesters , especially young people entering the industry , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investors .
RESEARCH : # Fishing for a Future Understanding access issues and wellbeing among independent # fish # harvesters in # BritishColumbia , Canada https : //t.co/y0UJGUIprF @ NathanJBennett @ acschuhbauer @ DrRashidSumaila @ MarineCons @ TBuckSuzuki @ OceanCanada @ ecotrustcanada — UBC Oceans ( @ UBCoceans ) November 22 , 2020 These owners will then lease them out to the people actually catching the fish under several kinds of contracts .
In most cases , the harvester needs to sell the fish to a predetermined buyer ( often the same person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even if they are an independent skipper .
`` The story of fisheries management is often a story of managing the fish .
But what is often neglected is that fisheries consist of both fish and people , '' @ NathanJBennett says .
That system has been widely credited with making many of B.C .
's fisheries more sustainable — but it has come at a price .
“ This is an area where corporations and wealthy individuals , both from within Canada and from outside Canada , are investing in Canadian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the price up and people ca n't get into the industry , ” Bennett said .
Farmers in the province 's Lower Mainland face a similar situation .
Skyrocketing land prices in the region , combined with tight profit margins , make it almost impossible for many to afford farmland .
“ ( That means ) concentration is also happening , more and more of those licences and quotas are going away from the communities of fish harvesters and into the hands of relatively few.
” It 's one of the few common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For instance , a 2019 report by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans notes “ of the 345 licence and quota holders in the groundfish trawl , halibut and sablefish fisheries , the top 26 ... hold 50 per cent of the quota value , and the top four , or 1.2 per cent , hold 50 per cent of all the quota pounds.
” And for the salmon fishery — which is managed quite differently — a draft socio-economic assessment completed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada ( DFO ) this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ introduced in the 1990s that were designed to shrink the salmon fleet have also led to consolidation in the industry .
However , the impact these changes have had on fish harvesters — particularly small-scale harvesters , who are the maritime equivalent to family farmers — and the communities where they live is n't well understood .
It 's a gap Bennett said the report will help fill .
Conducted over the summer of 2019 , project researchers interviewed 118 fish harvesters from several communities and First Nations in coastal B.C .
about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health of B.C .
's fish stocks and the factors they saw making it hard for them to access the fish .
Overall , Bennett said that the people who took the survey knew how to fish and felt that their livelihood embedded them within their community .
However , they struggled to afford licences and quota and felt like their voices were not being heard by DFO .
Many were also concerned about the security of their rights to access the fish — a broad category that can include anything from local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fishing rights , which are constitutionally protected but remain limited by DFO .
For Fraser Macdonald , a Vancouver-based prawn , tuna and halibut harvester , the results indicate that some changes to the province 's management regimes are necessary .
Young fish harvesters such as Fraser Macdonald face the same problem as young farmers in B.C .
— both farmland and fishing access rights , the foundation of their livelihoods , are priced far beyond the value of the food they can produce .
Photo by Marc Fawcett-Atkinson He said that 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boards , a system used in many fisheries across the province .
Many only grant membership to licence and quota owners — not to the people out on the water — though he said that is starting to change .
“ That 's a growing part of our industry , people leasing quota and that do n't own ( it ) , ” he said .
Ensuring their voices are heard could help ensure that they are n't getting priced out of the industry by investors and corporations .
Still , Bennett said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the province 's fisheries more equitably .
And it needs to look at more than just the fish .
“ The story of fisheries management is often a story of managing the fish .
But what is often neglected is that fisheries consist of both fish and people , ” he said .

When Nathan Bennett looks at B.C.’s fisheries, he sees problems — and not only those associated with low stocks. He also worries about the people who catch the fish. “There have definitely been some challenges related to the resource itself,” explained the B.C.-based independent fisheries researcher and consultant. More than 80 species of fish and shellfish are harvested in the province. While some are struggling, such as wild salmon, others, such as halibut and hake, are doing relatively well. “But the biggest challenge for a lot of fish harvesters is their ability to get into the industry and their ability to afford the costs of being able to go out fishing.” That's one of the key findings of a study released this month by researchers at the University of British Columbia, in collaboration with two community development organizations and the Nuu-chah-nulth Fisheries Program. Co-authored by Bennett, the project surveyed independent, small-scale fish harvesters across the province to look at the barriers between them and the fish. Often, low stocks are not the biggest impediment, Bennett said, but the exorbitant price tag for the licences and quota harvesters must have before they can head out to sea.
“No matter what status the stock is at, the question remains as to who the remaining fish should go to. Should they go to Indigenous fishers first, based on their (Aboriginal) rights? Should local independent fish harvesters get the next kick at the can, because they are adjacent to the resource? Or should any individual or corporation with money be able to buy up the available licence and quota?” he said. Licences and quota are regulatory tools used by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to manage the fisheries. Licences give fish harvesters access to a specific fishery, while quota determines how many fish from that fishery the harvester can catch. For instance, a halibut harvester needs a halibut licence to enter the industry. But each year, before heading out to the fishing grounds, they also must purchase a quota before they can actually catch fish. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions In most fisheries, both can be owned by anyone — not necessarily the person actually catching the fish — and their price is speculative. In other words, their cost is determined by how much people are willing to pay for licences and quota, not the market value of the fish. It's a situation where, for the most valuable fisheries such as halibut or prawn, licences and quota can be worth up to several million dollars.
Because those prices are far too high for most harvesters, especially young people entering the industry, they're often purchased by corporations or investors. "The story of fisheries management is often a story of managing the fish. But what is often neglected is that fisheries consist of both fish and people," @NathanJBennett says. RESEARCH: #Fishing for a Future
Understanding access issues and wellbeing among
independent #fish #harvesters in #BritishColumbia, Canada https://t.co/y0UJGUIprF @NathanJBennett @acschuhbauer @DrRashidSumaila @MarineCons @TBuckSuzuki @OceanCanada @ecotrustcanada — UBC Oceans (@UBCoceans) November 22, 2020 These owners will then lease them out to the people actually catching the fish under several kinds of contracts. In most cases, the harvester needs to sell the fish to a predetermined buyer (often the same person who owns the licence and quota), even if they are an independent skipper. That system has been widely credited with making many of B.C.'s fisheries more sustainable — but it has come at a price. “This is an area where corporations and wealthy individuals, both from within Canada and from outside Canada, are investing in Canadian (licences and quota) and driving the price up and people can't get into the industry,” Bennett said.
Farmers in the province's Lower Mainland face a similar situation. Skyrocketing land prices in the region, combined with tight profit margins, make it almost impossible for many to afford farmland. “(That means) concentration is also happening, more and more of those licences and quotas are going away from the communities of fish harvesters and into the hands of relatively few.” It's one of the few common trends seen across B.C.'s fisheries.


nationalobserver--2020-11-24--The pandemic has barely made a dent in climate-changing pollution levels

This article was originally published by Huffington Post and appears here as part of Canada 's National Observer 's collaboration with Climate Desk .
As nations went into lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 , factories halted and cars sat idle , clearing the skies above polluted cities and sending climate-changing emissions to historic lows .
But the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere ― the accumulation of past and current emissions ― remained virtually unchanged , according to the World Meteorological Organization ’ s annual estimate released Monday .
“ The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement .
“ We need a sustained flattening of the curve.
” • This Heiltsuk activist wants sovereignty and self-reliance for her community Concentrations of carbon dioxide , the biggest and most significant driver of climate change , soared past 415 parts per million last year , a level never before experienced in human history .
The pandemic-induced lockdowns at the start of this year reduced daily global CO2 emissions by up to 17 per cent compared to the mean daily level in 2019 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total worldwide reduction for the year is likely only between 4.2 per cent and 7.5 per cent compared to the previous year .
At a global scale , the research concluded , “ an emission reduction of this magnitude will not cause atmospheric CO2 levels to decrease ; they will merely increase at a slightly reduced rate.
” “ The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago , when the temperature was 2-3 C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than now , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weren ’ t 7.7 billion inhabitants.
” Concentrations of methane , a more potent heat-trapper than CO2 during its first two decades in the atmosphere , surged by a near-record rate last year to 1,877 parts per billion .
Levels were 260 per cent higher than in the year 1750 , before industrial farming and oil and gas drilling began adding prodigious volumes of methane to the atmosphere .
Nitrous oxide , a greenhouse gas that also depletes the ozone layer , reached 332 parts per billion last year , a level 123 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The annual increase from 2018 to 2019 was slightly smaller than the jump from 2017 to 2018 .
But the yearly growth rate was on par with the average over the past 10 years , making last year ’ s decrease nothing to celebrate .
The WMO study comes a week after the energy research firm BloombergNEF projected total U.S. emissions to fall 9.2 per cent , the lowest level since 1983 .
But carbon released by extreme wildfires across the American West this year lowered the net drop in emissions to 6.4 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emissions ― through renewable electricity , electric vehicles and more efficient energy use ― contributed just one per cent to the total drop , the report found .
“ The fact that this pandemic barely made a dent in the increase of the greenhouse gas concentrations shows how difficult it will be going forward to try and eventually stabilize concentrations , '' @ WMO 's secretary-general said .
# climatechange “ It would take a sustained reduction over a long period of time to see a change in the greenhouse gas concentration trajectory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact that this pandemic barely made a dent in the increase of the greenhouse gas concentrations shows how difficult it will be going forward to try and eventually stabilize concentrations.
” There are some promising signs .
The European Union directed billions of its stimulus spending to green projects .
In September , China , the world ’ s top emitter , announced plans to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2060 .
This month , U.S. voters elected Democrat Joe Biden as the country ’ s next leader , replacing President Donald Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to radically increase emissions , with a political moderate who campaigned on reaching net-zero emission by 2050 .
Yet averting catastrophic warming requires not just reaching net-zero emissions but removing the gases that have already accumulated in the atmosphere , more than a dozen scientists and activists wrote in a public letter this month .
“ We must heighten our ambition to climate restoration on every level , ” the letter , published in the Guardian , read .
“ We urge governments and companies to start acting , not only to reach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but to achieve restoration as well .
And we urge every citizen to do what they can to make the dream of restoration a reality .
”

This article was originally published by Huffington Post and appears here as part of Canada's National Observer's collaboration with Climate Desk. As nations went into lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, factories halted and cars sat idle, clearing the skies above polluted cities and sending climate-changing emissions to historic lows. But the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere ― the accumulation of past and current emissions ― remained virtually unchanged, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s annual estimate released Monday. “The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “We need a sustained flattening of the curve.”
Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the biggest and most significant driver of climate change, soared past 415 parts per million last year, a level never before experienced in human history. The pandemic-induced lockdowns at the start of this year reduced daily global CO2 emissions by up to 17 per cent compared to the mean daily level in 2019, the study found. But the total worldwide reduction for the year is likely only between 4.2 per cent and 7.5 per cent compared to the previous year. At a global scale, the research concluded, “an emission reduction of this magnitude will not cause atmospheric CO2 levels to decrease; they will merely increase at a slightly reduced rate.” Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions “The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3 C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than now,” Taalas said. “But there weren’t 7.7 billion inhabitants.”
Concentrations of methane, a more potent heat-trapper than CO2 during its first two decades in the atmosphere, surged by a near-record rate last year to 1,877 parts per billion. Levels were 260 per cent higher than in the year 1750, before industrial farming and oil and gas drilling began adding prodigious volumes of methane to the atmosphere. “The fact that this pandemic barely made a dent in the increase of the greenhouse gas concentrations shows how difficult it will be going forward to try and eventually stabilize concentrations," @WMO's secretary-general said. #climatechange Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that also depletes the ozone layer, reached 332 parts per billion last year, a level 123 per cent higher than preindustrial levels. The annual increase from 2018 to 2019 was slightly smaller than the jump from 2017 to 2018. But the yearly growth rate was on par with the average over the past 10 years, making last year’s decrease nothing to celebrate. The WMO study comes a week after the energy research firm BloombergNEF projected total U.S. emissions to fall 9.2 per cent, the lowest level since 1983. But carbon released by extreme wildfires across the American West this year lowered the net drop in emissions to 6.4 per cent. Efforts to reduce climate-changing emissions ― through renewable electricity, electric vehicles and more efficient energy use ― contributed just one per cent to the total drop, the report found. “It would take a sustained reduction over a long period of time to see a change in the greenhouse gas concentration trajectory,” he said. “The fact that this pandemic barely made a dent in the increase of the greenhouse gas concentrations shows how difficult it will be going forward to try and eventually stabilize concentrations.” There are some promising signs. The European Union directed billions of its stimulus spending to green projects. In September, China, the world’s top emitter, announced plans to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2060. This month, U.S. voters elected Democrat Joe Biden as the country’s next leader, replacing President Donald Trump, a fossil fuel extremist who sought to radically increase emissions, with a political moderate who campaigned on reaching net-zero emission by 2050.


nationalobserver--2020-11-24--Liberals' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now

On Thursday , Nov. 19 , Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined his Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson for a major climate announcement .
They proclaimed they had , at long last , ended the era of broken promises with a legally binding route to net-zero by 2050 .
The Holy Grail of Climate Accountability had arrived — Bill C-12 , full title : “ An Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada ’ s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.
” Trudeau and Wilkinson may actually believe they have done what needs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will disagree and brand me as naive in believing the Liberals mean well .
I bet the BC NDP mean well , too , in the sense that they do not want to hasten the end of a livable world .
But politicians who bring forward climate plans that fail to avoid dangerous tipping points in our atmosphere represent a new breed of climate deniers .
Of course , they do not deny that human activity is creating climate chaos .
And they can accurately rhyme off the threats to a stable climate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroying forests .
They can list climate solutions that will create millions of jobs and rebuild our economy .
They can recite the goals of the Paris Agreement — to hold global average temperature increase to as far below 2 C as possible and attempt to hold that increase to 1.5 C. What they are missing , as is made manifest by the so-called climate accountability act , is an understanding of the necessary urgency .
They have missed the reality that the window on 1.5 C is closing .
And once it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ • This Heiltsuk activist wants sovereignty and self-reliance for her community Like climate accountability laws in other countries ( the U.K. , New Zealand , Denmark ) , the bill sets out legislated requirements for action in five-year increments .
Setting aside the absence of any penalty for missing targets , the danger of this bill is in its failure to be based in climate science .
The end goal is that Canada achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 .
That is consistent with climate science , as expressed in the bill ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Climate Change concluded that achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is key to keeping the rise in the global-mean temperature to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels and minimizing climate-change related risks.
” Fatally , the bill fails to note that in order to hold global mean temperature rise to 1.5 C , it is not the 2050 target that requires urgent attention as much as what we must do by 2030 .
There is no mention in the bill of the clear warnings of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 C. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold to 1.5 C places the survival of human civilization at risk .
And that we are running out of time to do so : “ In model pathways with no or limited overshoot of 1.5 C , global net anthropogenic CO2 emissions decline by about 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 … reaching net zero around 2050 … ” `` Any climate accountability act must hold accountable the politicians who legislate it , '' @ ElizabethMay says .
`` Those of us in Parliament today — not 10 years from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Translation : If we want to get to net zero by 2050 , we first have to get to roughly half as many emissions in 2030 as in 2010 .
After correctly choosing the finish line ( carbon zero by 2050 ) , the bill sets a starting point that could well be past the point of no return .
The first “ milestone year ” in the bill is 2030 .
Ignoring the more urgent IPCC advice creates a fiction in which we have plenty of time to get around to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accountability regime with targets every five years is a very good idea .
But placing the first target year for action at 2030 is appalling .
The “ accountability ” legislation sets out the first “ progress report ” in 2028 .
This is a dream world of unending timelines for further procrastination .
Worse , our current target is incompatible with our Paris commitments .
What 99 per cent of the news media calls our “ Paris target ” is the target set by former prime minister Stephen Harper in May 2015 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030 .
If we are to fulfil our fair share of the global effort , since we are so far behind , Canada should double our target to a 60 per cent cut in GHG emissions by 2030 .
This is the year when Canada was expected to improve the old Harper target .
Canada is violating the decision document attached to the Paris Agreement by failing to put a stronger target in place in 2020 .
We show no intention of doing so .
Ironically , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will , unintentionally , be a new obstacle to improving our target .
The required consultations and creation of a committee to advise future action create statutorily mandated delays to improve our target , a commitment running very much behind its deadline of calendar 2020 .
Wilkinson can still save this act if a target for 2025 is named in the bill .
2025 must be the first milestone year .
And the bill can not just set out that a target must be created for 2025 through the consultation processes set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs to put in place a mandated target for 2025 .
I propose 20 per cent below 2005 levels , but 30 per cent would be better .
But it is an abdication of our moral responsibility to our children to mandate action at a point that may well be too late .

On Thursday, Nov. 19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined his Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson for a major climate announcement. They proclaimed they had, at long last, ended the era of broken promises with a legally binding route to net-zero by 2050. The Holy Grail of Climate Accountability had arrived — Bill C-12, full title: “An Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.” Trudeau and Wilkinson may actually believe they have done what needs to be done. I am sure others will disagree and brand me as naive in believing the Liberals mean well. I bet the BC NDP mean well, too, in the sense that they do not want to hasten the end of a livable world. But politicians who bring forward climate plans that fail to avoid dangerous tipping points in our atmosphere represent a new breed of climate deniers. Of course, they do not deny that human activity is creating climate chaos. And they can accurately rhyme off the threats to a stable climate that arise from burning fossil fuels and destroying forests. They can list climate solutions that will create millions of jobs and rebuild our economy. They can recite the goals of the Paris Agreement — to hold global average temperature increase to as far below 2 C as possible and attempt to hold that increase to 1.5 C. What they are missing, as is made manifest by the so-called climate accountability act, is an understanding of the necessary urgency. They have missed the reality that the window on 1.5 C is closing. And once it closes, it closes for good.
Like climate accountability laws in other countries (the U.K., New Zealand, Denmark), the bill sets out legislated requirements for action in five-year increments. Setting aside the absence of any penalty for missing targets, the danger of this bill is in its failure to be based in climate science. The end goal is that Canada achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. That is consistent with climate science, as expressed in the bill’s preamble: Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions “… the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is key to keeping the rise in the global-mean temperature to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels and minimizing climate-change related risks.”
Fatally, the bill fails to note that in order to hold global mean temperature rise to 1.5 C, it is not the 2050 target that requires urgent attention as much as what we must do by 2030. There is no mention in the bill of the clear warnings of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 C. "Any climate accountability act must hold accountable the politicians who legislate it," @ElizabethMay says. "Those of us in Parliament today — not 10 years from now." #cdnpoli #climatechange We have been warned that failure to hold to 1.5 C places the survival of human civilization at risk. And that we are running out of time to do so: “In model pathways with no or limited overshoot of 1.5 C, global net anthropogenic CO2 emissions decline by about 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 … reaching net zero around 2050 …” Translation: If we want to get to net zero by 2050, we first have to get to roughly half as many emissions in 2030 as in 2010. After correctly choosing the finish line (carbon zero by 2050), the bill sets a starting point that could well be past the point of no return. The first “milestone year” in the bill is 2030.
Ignoring the more urgent IPCC advice creates a fiction in which we have plenty of time to get around to a deadline three decades from now. An accountability regime with targets every five years is a very good idea. But placing the first target year for action at 2030 is appalling. The “accountability” legislation sets out the first “progress report” in 2028. This is a dream world of unending timelines for further procrastination. Worse, our current target is incompatible with our Paris commitments. What 99 per cent of the news media calls our “Paris target” is the target set by former prime minister Stephen Harper in May 2015 — 30 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.


nationalobserver--2020-11-24--Lead battery recycling is a global health hazard. Why have so few people heard of it?

This article was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and appears here as part of Canada 's National Observer 's collaboration with Climate Desk .
Phyllis Omido thought her baby son had malaria — until doctors discovered he was being poisoned by her breast milk , which contained dangerous levels of lead emitted by a battery recycling plant close to her home in Mombasa , Kenya .
She quit her job at the plant and launched a campaign that eventually shut it down .
On the other side of Africa , in Senegal , at least 18 children died in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead pollution from a battery recycling plant in a suburb of Dakar had damaged their brains .
The ground around the plant was so contaminated that residents were collecting the soil in their homes to sieve out the lead for sale .
Hundreds more children in the neighborhood were poisoned .
In California last month , the state auditor reported that thousands of homes , along with schools and parks , in a 3.4-mile-wide zone around a former battery recycling factory near Los Angeles remained contaminated , because of delays in a $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owner , Exide Technologies , will not fund .
• This Heiltsuk activist wants sovereignty and self-reliance for her community And as U.S. environmental rules governing lead recycling plants have tightened , nearly half a million tons of American car batteries have in recent years been trucked south annually , for recycling in often dangerous and poorly controlled smelters in Mexico .
From Vietnamese villages to the backstreets of Chinese megacities , from Roma camps in Kosovo to workshops in the shantytowns of Africa , from forest clearings in Bangladesh to giant smelters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead batteries , mostly from automobiles , is a lethal and growing scar on the planet .
Perry Gottesfeld of Occupational Knowledge International , a San Francisco-based organization that campaigns worldwide against industrial pollution , calls it “ the most serious environmental health threat to children.
” But somehow the epidemic of poisoning from this hugely profitable business is rarely seen as a global scandal .
Most people have never heard of it .
The automobile industry had appeared to have purged lead from its environmental CV with the almost-total elimination in recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the aftermath , blood-lead levels in hundreds of millions of people across the world fell , often dramatically .
But now , those levels are rising again , says Richard Fuller , CEO of Pure Earth , a New York-based nonprofit , in large part because nobody thought about lead in automobile batteries , even though they start almost all of the 1.4 billion vehicles on the road today .
A third of the world ’ s children are being poisoned by lead , from recycled batteries and other sources , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pure Earth .
# recycling # leadpoisoning We tend to think of recycling as an unalloyed good thing .
But not the way it is done with lead in batteries .
Lead , one of the most ubiquitous and poisonous metals , is also among the most recycled , with more than six million tons of it collected for reuse each year .
Lead batteries are “ the world ’ s most recycled consumer product , ” according to the International Lead Association , a London-based trade body .
Thanks to recycling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An estimated 85 per cent of lead in use today goes into batteries , mostly for automobiles .
And when the batteries run down , 99 per cent of this lead is recycled to make new batteries .
The business is so universal because , unlike e-waste , for instance , it is very profitable .
But therein lies a problem .
Lots of people want a slice of the action .
Tens of thousands of backyard battery breakers and smelting enterprises around the world are seeking to cash in , collecting an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into new product .
With little regulation , the result is often lethal .
In many countries , small-time operators outcompete the legitimate industry , because their low costs mean they can pay more to buy used batteries .
Up to half of all batteries end up in the informal economy , “ where unregulated and often illegal recycling operations break open battery cases , spilling acid and lead dust onto the ground , and smelt lead in open-air furnaces that spew toxic fumes and dust that contaminate surrounding neighborhoods , ” according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pure Earth and UNICEF , the UN children ’ s agency .
But parts of the formal legal sector are scarcely better , says Gottesfeld , with plants that “ are fewer but bigger.
” The former Exide plant in California is a case in point .
Across the border , a giant smelter in the Mexican city of Torreon has a history of contaminating the blood of children in the neighbourhood that stretches back half a century .
Plumes of pollution in air , soils and water have long been documented around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small .
Doctors know that lead is readily breathed in or ingested .
It enters the bloodstream , which delivers it efficiently to organs from the gastrointestinal system to the brain .
We know , too , that the lead is a potent neurotoxin .
There is no known safe level .
Besides causing fevers and gastrointestinal problems , it damages the intellectual development of young children even at low levels , reducing IQ and attention span , as well as causing mood disorders .
It has been suggested as an important trigger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States and elsewhere .
Some point to how crime levels dropped in many cities as lead was removed from gasoline .
“ Lead wreaks its havoc silently and insidiously , ” the UNICEF report noted .
The study ’ s most stunning statistic was that a third of the world ’ s children are being poisoned by lead , from recycled batteries and other sources .
Put another way , around 800 million children live with levels of lead in their blood above the five micrograms per decilitre safety standard set by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prevention .
Some experts , including Gottesfeld , say the UNICEF estimate is unsubstantiated .
But he concedes it is “ consistent with the blood-lead data we see around the world.
” Gottesfeld sees a global industry growing fast and largely unregulated .
“ I started investigating this years ago in India , ” he says .
“ But as fast as we tried to clean up there , we found the same Indian companies moving to Africa.
” With African economies booming , more than 800,000 tons of lead is removed from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The consequences for human health and the environment are beginning to emerge .
A seven-nation study of the continent that Gottesfeld helped compile two years ago found widespread lead contamination of soil around recycling plants in dense urban slums and close to schools in cities such as Dar es Salaam in Tanzania , Lagos in Nigeria and the port of Tema in Ghana .
Lead levels in contaminated soils averaged 23,200 parts per million — 1,000 times natural levels and roughly 100 times U.S. safety levels for soil .
The soil was two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 14 per cent .
Africa is facing an especially severe lead poisoning problem .
“ But so far , ” writes Faridah Were of the University of Nairobi , a co-author of the Gottesfeld paper , “ despite the urgent need… there has been minimal effort by African governments.
” Southeast Asia faces a similar crisis .
Bill Daniell of the University of Washington School of Public Health , was lead author of a 2015 study of childhood lead exposure around Dong Mai , a Vietnamese village near Hanoi , where households specialized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 children in the village were tested .
They all showed high levels of lead in their blood , with more than a quarter above 45 micrograms per decilitre , or nine times the U.S. safety limit .
In China , Occupational Knowledge International has documented a rash of scandals around lead recycling and smelting plants over the last two decades .
Yale Environment 360 reported in 2010 how more than 100 children were treated in hospitals in Chongqing for lead poisoning caused by pollution from the city ’ s large lead smelting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ransacked its offices and destroyed machinery , forcing the plant ’ s closure .
China is now cleaning up , says Gottesfeld .
“ Hundreds of plants have been shut down.
” But he says India is not taking action .
Its regulations are weak , and there is poor enforcement .
“ Companies are supposed to take back 80 per cent of batteries , ” he says , “ but there is no financial incentive , so it doesn ’ t happen.
” Instead , small-time dealers and scrap merchants rule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Toxics Link , a New Delhi-based NGO , found that about 90 per cent of lead batteries in India ended up recycled by the informal sector .
The study mapped neighborhoods in major cities , such as Delhi , where workshops recycling lead batteries operate apparently with no official oversight .
Global demand for lead has grown ten-fold in a decade “ mostly linked to the battery industry , ” says Daniell .
The main cause of the soaring problem is the rapid increase in number of automobiles around the world .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the rapid growth of renewable energy , which requires batteries to capture and store energy when the sun is shining or the wind blowing .
Domestic solar panels in remote rural areas may be a particular problem .
“ Almost all home solar users have lead batteries , ” says Gottesfeld .
The batteries allow people to store energy during daylight hours to run TVs and electric lights at night .
“ This is promoted by UN agencies and climate change activists , ” he says , “ but nobody is providing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recycling.
” So what can be done ?
Gottesfeld says UN agencies such as UNICEF and the UN Environment Program have highlighted the issue without addressing it effectively .
Daniell agrees , noting there is “ a fair amount of published research , and endless discussion , but that has not translated well to definitive action or effective policy.
” Fuller at Pure Earth says persuading policymakers will be “ a slow process.
” He wants to establish a global fund to help governments provide cash for the collection of batteries by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side-lining the backstreet operators .
He highlights success in Brazil , “ which shut 80 per cent of its informal sector , ” mainly through economic incentives .
Some major firms say they want to help .
Industry superpower Clarios , which makes a third of the world ’ s automobile batteries , recently began funding efforts by UNICEF and Pure Earth to lobby for a global cleanup .
But others hold out .
The India Lead Zinc Development Association dismissed the well-researched and sober-minded Toxics Link study as “ exaggerated and totally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of operating standards , there will remain a huge legacy of contaminated sites .
Worldwide , Fuller believes there could be up to 90,000 informal recycling plants currently operating , most poisoning the environment and people .
“ But we don ’ t know .
The more you look , the more you find.
” And there are many more contaminated sites than plants .
“ The plants keep on moving , ” says Fuller .
He studied Bangladesh , where there are hundreds of informal companies , often breaking batteries and smelting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They keep getting chased off by the locals , but just move elsewhere , leaving behind thousands of contaminated sites.
” Even where investment has gone into cleanup , the outcome can be uncertain , says Fuller .
A lot of money was spent to purge poisoned soil from the area around the Senegal site where 18 children died .
“ We put all the soil down an abandoned mine , ” he says .
“ But a local politician said it would poison his people .
He dug it up and put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to dispose of it all over again.
” Still , there is hope .
In July this year , Omido and her fellow Kenyan campaigners won a major victory in the courts against the Kenyan government and the two metal refining companies that operated in Mombasa .
The judges awarded $ 12 million in compensation for deaths and health impacts from the Mombasa battery recycling plant — and ordered a cleanup .
It is a start .

In California last month, the state auditor reported that thousands of homes, along with schools and parks, in a 3.4-mile-wide zone around a former battery recycling factory near Los Angeles remained contaminated , because of delays in a $650-million cleanup that the now-bankrupt former factory owner, Exide Technologies, will not fund .
On the other side of Africa, in Senegal, at least 18 children died in just three months from encephalopathy — toxic lead pollution from a battery recycling plant in a suburb of Dakar had damaged their brains. The ground around the plant was so contaminated that residents were collecting the soil in their homes to sieve out the lead for sale. Hundreds more children in the neighborhood were poisoned .
Phyllis Omido thought her baby son had malaria — until doctors discovered he was being poisoned by her breast milk, which contained dangerous levels of lead emitted by a battery recycling plant close to her home in Mombasa, Kenya. She quit her job at the plant and launched a campaign that eventually shut it down .
This article was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and appears here as part of Canada's National Observer 's collaboration with Climate Desk.
Perry Gottesfeld of Occupational Knowledge International, a San Francisco-based organization that campaigns worldwide against industrial pollution, calls it “the most serious environmental health threat to children.”
From Vietnamese villages to the backstreets of Chinese megacities, from Roma camps in Kosovo to workshops in the shantytowns of Africa, from forest clearings in Bangladesh to giant smelters in India, the unsafe recycling of lead batteries, mostly from automobiles, is a lethal and growing scar on the planet.
And as U.S. environmental rules governing lead recycling plants have tightened, nearly half a million tons of American car batteries have in recent years been trucked south annually, for recycling in often dangerous and poorly controlled smelters in Mexico.
An estimated 85 per cent of lead in use today goes into batteries, mostly for automobiles. And when the batteries run down, 99 per cent of this lead is recycled to make new batteries. The business is so universal because, unlike e-waste, for instance, it is very profitable.
We tend to think of recycling as an unalloyed good thing. But not the way it is done with lead in batteries. Lead, one of the most ubiquitous and poisonous metals, is also among the most recycled, with more than six million tons of it collected for reuse each year. Lead batteries are “the world’s most recycled consumer product,” according to the International Lead Association , a London-based trade body. Thanks to recycling, we barely mine lead any more.
But now, those levels are rising again, says Richard Fuller, CEO of Pure Earth, a New York-based nonprofit, in large part because nobody thought about lead in automobile batteries, even though they start almost all of the 1.4 billion vehicles on the road today.
The automobile industry had appeared to have purged lead from its environmental CV with the almost-total elimination in recent decades of lead additives in gasoline. In the aftermath, blood-lead levels in hundreds of millions of people across the world fell, often dramatically.
But somehow the epidemic of poisoning from this hugely profitable business is rarely seen as a global scandal. Most people have never heard of it.
But parts of the formal legal sector are scarcely better, says Gottesfeld, with plants that “are fewer but bigger.” The former Exide plant in California is a case in point. Across the border, a giant smelter in the Mexican city of Torreon has a history of contaminating the blood of children in the neighbourhood that stretches back half a century.
In many countries, small-time operators outcompete the legitimate industry, because their low costs mean they can pay more to buy used batteries. Up to half of all batteries end up in the informal economy, “where unregulated and often illegal recycling operations break open battery cases, spilling acid and lead dust onto the ground, and smelt lead in open-air furnaces that spew toxic fumes and dust that contaminate surrounding neighborhoods,” according to a report published in July by Pure Earth and UNICEF, the UN children’s agency.
But therein lies a problem. Lots of people want a slice of the action. Tens of thousands of backyard battery breakers and smelting enterprises around the world are seeking to cash in, collecting an abundant supply of used batteries to turn into new product. With little regulation, the result is often lethal.
Plumes of pollution in air, soils and water have long been documented around lead recycling and smelting works large and small. Doctors know that lead is readily breathed in or ingested. It enters the bloodstream, which delivers it efficiently to organs from the gastrointestinal system to the brain.
We know, too, that the lead is a potent neurotoxin. There is no known safe level. Besides causing fevers and gastrointestinal problems, it damages the intellectual development of young children even at low levels, reducing IQ and attention span, as well as causing mood disorders. It has been suggested as an important trigger for violent behavior in communities across the United States and elsewhere. Some point to how crime levels dropped in many cities as lead was removed from gasoline.
“Lead wreaks its havoc silently and insidiously,” the UNICEF report noted. The study’s most stunning statistic was that a third of the world’s children are being poisoned by lead, from recycled batteries and other sources. Put another way, around 800 million children live with levels of lead in their blood above the five micrograms per decilitre safety standard set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some experts, including Gottesfeld, say the UNICEF estimate is unsubstantiated. But he concedes it is “consistent with the blood-lead data we see around the world.”
Gottesfeld sees a global industry growing fast and largely unregulated. “I started investigating this years ago in India,” he says. “But as fast as we tried to clean up there, we found the same Indian companies moving to Africa.”
With African economies booming, more than 800,000 tons of lead is removed from batteries each year across the continent.
The consequences for human health and the environment are beginning to emerge. A seven-nation study of the continent that Gottesfeld helped compile two years ago found widespread lead contamination of soil around recycling plants in dense urban slums and close to schools in cities such as Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Lagos in Nigeria and the port of Tema in Ghana.
Lead levels in contaminated soils averaged 23,200 parts per million — 1,000 times natural levels and roughly 100 times U.S. safety levels for soil. The soil was two per cent lead, with peaks at 14 per cent.
Africa is facing an especially severe lead poisoning problem. “But so far,” writes Faridah Were of the University of Nairobi, a co-author of the Gottesfeld paper, “despite the urgent need… there has been minimal effort by African governments.”
Southeast Asia faces a similar crisis. Bill Daniell of the University of Washington School of Public Health, was lead author of a 2015 study of childhood lead exposure around Dong Mai, a Vietnamese village near Hanoi, where households specialized in recycling lead batteries. More than 100 children in the village were tested. They all showed high levels of lead in their blood, with more than a quarter above 45 micrograms per decilitre, or nine times the U.S. safety limit.
In China, Occupational Knowledge International has documented a rash of scandals around lead recycling and smelting plants over the last two decades. Yale Environment 360 reported in 2010 how more than 100 children were treated in hospitals in Chongqing for lead poisoning caused by pollution from the city’s large lead smelting plant. Angry parents surrounded the plant, ransacked its offices and destroyed machinery, forcing the plant’s closure.
China is now cleaning up, says Gottesfeld. “Hundreds of plants have been shut down.”
But he says India is not taking action. Its regulations are weak, and there is poor enforcement.
“Companies are supposed to take back 80 per cent of batteries,” he says, “but there is no financial incentive, so it doesn’t happen.”
Instead, small-time dealers and scrap merchants rule. A study published last year by Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based NGO, found that about 90 per cent of lead batteries in India ended up recycled by the informal sector. The study mapped neighborhoods in major cities, such as Delhi, where workshops recycling lead batteries operate apparently with no official oversight.
Global demand for lead has grown ten-fold in a decade “mostly linked to the battery industry,” says Daniell. The main cause of the soaring problem is the rapid increase in number of automobiles around the world. But a disturbing new problem has arisen because of the rapid growth of renewable energy, which requires batteries to capture and store energy when the sun is shining or the wind blowing.
Domestic solar panels in remote rural areas may be a particular problem.
“Almost all home solar users have lead batteries,” says Gottesfeld. The batteries allow people to store energy during daylight hours to run TVs and electric lights at night.
“This is promoted by UN agencies and climate change activists,” he says, “but nobody is providing ways of collecting the batteries for safe recycling.”
So what can be done? Gottesfeld says UN agencies such as UNICEF and the UN Environment Program have highlighted the issue without addressing it effectively. Daniell agrees, noting there is “a fair amount of published research, and endless discussion, but that has not translated well to definitive action or effective policy.”
Fuller at Pure Earth says persuading policymakers will be “a slow process.” He wants to establish a global fund to help governments provide cash for the collection of batteries by the formal sector, as a way of side-lining the backstreet operators. He highlights success in Brazil, “which shut 80 per cent of its informal sector,” mainly through economic incentives.
Some major firms say they want to help. Industry superpower Clarios, which makes a third of the world’s automobile batteries, recently began funding efforts by UNICEF and Pure Earth to lobby for a global cleanup.
But others hold out. The India Lead Zinc Development Association dismissed the well-researched and sober-minded Toxics Link study as “exaggerated and totally flawed.”
But even with a tightening of operating standards, there will remain a huge legacy of contaminated sites. Worldwide, Fuller believes there could be up to 90,000 informal recycling plants currently operating, most poisoning the environment and people. “But we don’t know. The more you look, the more you find.”
And there are many more contaminated sites than plants.
“The plants keep on moving,” says Fuller. He studied Bangladesh, where there are hundreds of informal companies, often breaking batteries and smelting their lead on vacant land. “They keep getting chased off by the locals, but just move elsewhere, leaving behind thousands of contaminated sites.”
Even where investment has gone into cleanup, the outcome can be uncertain, says Fuller. A lot of money was spent to purge poisoned soil from the area around the Senegal site where 18 children died.
“We put all the soil down an abandoned mine,” he says. “But a local politician said it would poison his people. He dug it up and put it on the roadside. Now we have to dispose of it all over again.”
Still, there is hope. In July this year, Omido and her fellow Kenyan campaigners won a major victory in the courts against the Kenyan government and the two metal refining companies that operated in Mombasa. The judges awarded $12 million in compensation for deaths and health impacts from the Mombasa battery recycling plant — and ordered a cleanup. It is a start.


nationalobserver--2020-11-24--Offshore drilling in marine refuge guided by ‘best available science,’ regulator says

Newfoundland and Labrador ’ s offshore oil regulator says it expects the “ best available science ” will be followed when determining the environmental impact of drilling in a fragile Atlantic marine refuge .
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board ( C-NLOPB ) made the comments in response to questions about its decision to accept a bid from BP Canada to explore part of a marine refuge called the Northeast Newfoundland Slope for drilling .
WWF-Canada has criticized the move , saying it puts biodiversity in the area at risk , given that the marine refuge contains corals and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spawning grounds and that are easily damaged .
The group has called for oil and gas exploration and drilling in marine refuges to be banned .
Exploratory drilling is done when an energy company needs more data to determine the worthiness of setting up a more permanent drilling operation .
It often involves examining rock samples in the area .
BP Canada has said it is too early to discuss plans for its slice of the marine refuge .
But if it does move forward , it won ’ t have to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out exploratory drilling .
Newfoundland and Labrador ’ s offshore oil regulator says it expects the “ best available science ” will be followed when determining the environmental impact of drilling in a fragile Atlantic marine refuge .
That ’ s because Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson created a new regulation earlier this year that exempts exploratory drilling in the Atlantic east of Newfoundland from federal impact assessments .
The controversial exemption was made based on the fact that a large , “ regional assessment ” of exploratory drilling had already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on behalf of WWF-Canada , Ecology Action Centre and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation , has said that assessment was “ flawed ” and launched a legal challenge .
The exemption only applies to exploratory drilling — permanent offshore oil and gas projects “ will continue to be subject to project-specific assessments , ” the government said .
It also said any exploratory drilling must “ conform to the rigorous environmental and consultation conditions ” outlined in the minister 's new regulations .
That includes conducting an investigation of the seabed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sponges or “ any other environmentally sensitive features ” around each of the proposed sites for underwater oil wells .
If corals and sponges are there , the company must take measures to avoid them ; things such as “ moving the anchors or wells on the seafloor ” or “ redirecting the discharge of drill cuttings.
” Since the drilling area is in a refuge , the regulations say the company must also hand over another plan to the department and the regulator that outlines the effects of drilling on conservation objectives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ planned mitigation measures , how those measures will be monitored to make sure they 're working and a strategy to keep everyone in the loop as new information comes in .
“ Exploratory drilling programs are short-term projects and the environmental effects of these programs are well understood , ” the C-NLOPB said .
Ecology Action Centre senior marine co-ordinator Jordy Thomson said the rules surrounding drilling in a marine refuge also serve to highlight a quirk in the Liberal government ’ s conservation plans .
The government has made conservation a priority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s marine and coastal areas and promising to boost this to 25 per cent by 2025 .
That protected territory includes both marine protected areas , where oil and gas is off-limits , as well as marine refuges , where it is allowed .
Even if drilling permits are handed out to energy firms , the marine refuges are still counted toward the conservation target , up until the point at which “ oil and gas extraction begins.
” “ Under this approach , marine refuges become these ever-receding jigsaw puzzles with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ The federal government and the C-NLOPB need to put a halt to oil and gas development in all protected marine areas .
”

Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil regulator says it expects the “best available science” will be followed when determining the environmental impact of drilling in a fragile Atlantic marine refuge. The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) made the comments in response to questions about its decision to accept a bid from BP Canada to explore part of a marine refuge called the Northeast Newfoundland Slope for drilling. WWF-Canada has criticized the move, saying it puts biodiversity in the area at risk, given that the marine refuge contains corals and sponges that other marine life use as spawning grounds and that are easily damaged. The group has called for oil and gas exploration and drilling in marine refuges to be banned. The regulator said in a statement that it was operating under federal government policy. The federal Liberal government has allowed marine refuges to remain open to exploratory drilling, on a case-by-case basis, while declaring in 2019 that another, separate conservation category called “marine protected areas” would be off-limits to fossil fuel activity. For refuges, oil and gas exploration “can continue,” confirmed a spokesperson for the C-NLOPB, provided that the fisheries minister “is satisfied that risks to conservation objectives of those areas will be effectively avoided or mitigated.”
Any proposed oil and gas activity in the refuge would still be scrutinized through the government’s various environmental review processes, the regulator argued, as well as under the Fisheries Act. “It is expected these review processes will provide effective means to thoroughly assess, avoid and mitigate any impacts based on the best available science,” the regulator said.
Exploratory drilling ‘short-term,’ says regulator Exploratory drilling is done when an energy company needs more data to determine the worthiness of setting up a more permanent drilling operation. It often involves examining rock samples in the area. Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil regulator says it expects the “best available science” will be followed when determining the environmental impact of drilling in a fragile Atlantic marine refuge. BP Canada has said it is too early to discuss plans for its slice of the marine refuge. But if it does move forward, it won’t have to go through a separate environmental assessment to carry out exploratory drilling. That’s because Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson created a new regulation earlier this year that exempts exploratory drilling in the Atlantic east of Newfoundland from federal impact assessments. The controversial exemption was made based on the fact that a large, “regional assessment” of exploratory drilling had already been done.
Environmental law charity Ecojustice, on behalf of WWF-Canada, Ecology Action Centre and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, has said that assessment was “flawed” and launched a legal challenge. The exemption only applies to exploratory drilling — permanent offshore oil and gas projects “will continue to be subject to project-specific assessments,” the government said. It also said any exploratory drilling must “conform to the rigorous environmental and consultation conditions” outlined in the minister's new regulations.


nationalobserver--2020-11-25--Nova Scotia First Nation suspends lobster harvest after sighting of endangered right whales

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia ’ s Sipekne ’ katik First Nation says it will temporarily close its moderate livelihood lobster fishery after endangered North Atlantic right whales were detected off the province ’ s southwest coast .
In a news release issued Wednesday , Chief Mike Sack says band council took the action `` with conservation as our foremost concern . ''
Sack says the two-week closure affects fishery activities in the Roseway Basin critical habitat area , as identified by the federal Fisheries Department .
He says the band council is calling on the department and the commercial fishing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of all activity in the area to ensure the safe feeding and southward migration of the right whales .
Ottawa this week said that starting Thursday evening , fisheries operating within certain sections of the Roseway Basin would close until further notice to protect the whales , which can become entangled in fishing gear .
• Liberals ' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now • The key to fighting future pandemics ?
Old-growth forests , says mushroom guru Paul Stamets • Racism , discrimination and trauma @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — we must do better The department ’ s temporary closure affects one of the province ’ s most lucrative lobster fishing zones , known as LFA 34 , and comes days before the federally regulated lobster fishing season in the area is set to start .
Other fisheries in the affected area include crab , herring and mackerel .
In a statement late Tuesday , the federal Fisheries Department said fishing could resume if no right whales are detected during the 15-day closure of the Grand Manan Basin and Roseway Basin .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be conducted `` in the coming days , '' and if no right whales are spotted in the area , closures affecting the lobster fishery will be lifted before November 30 .
If whales are spotted , the temporary closures will remain in effect .
`` We understand that closing large areas to fishing poses challenges for some harvesters , especially given the later start to the fishing season due to COVID-19 , '' the statement said .
`` We would like to acknowledge the hard work and co-operation of harvesters and their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of protecting the North Atlantic right whale and upholding Canada ’ s reputation for sustainably sourced seafood . ''
Meanwhile , Sack said he believes everyone involved in the fishery `` must operate with an abundance of caution . ''
Sipekne ’ katik First Nation Chief Mike Sack says band council took the action `` with conservation as our foremost concern . ''
`` We will collaborate with others who are committed to protecting our marine environment which our fishery is dependent on for future generations , '' he said .
This report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nov. 25 , 2020 .

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Sipekne’katik First Nation says it will temporarily close its moderate livelihood lobster fishery after endangered North Atlantic right whales were detected off the province’s southwest coast.
In a news release issued Wednesday, Chief Mike Sack says band council took the action "with conservation as our foremost concern."
Sack says the two-week closure affects fishery activities in the Roseway Basin critical habitat area, as identified by the federal Fisheries Department.
He says the band council is calling on the department and the commercial fishing industry to extend if necessary the stoppage of all activity in the area to ensure the safe feeding and southward migration of the right whales.
Ottawa this week said that starting Thursday evening, fisheries operating within certain sections of the Roseway Basin would close until further notice to protect the whales, which can become entangled in fishing gear.


nationalobserver--2020-11-25--First step toward national child-care plan to be unveiled in economic update, sources say

The federal Liberals will take small step toward a plan to create a national daycare system , with sources telling the Canadian Press next week 's economic update will have money for a new federal child-care body .
Sources with knowledge of the government 's plans , who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations about yet-to-be-announced measures , said the Liberals will unveil funding for the child-care secretariat next week .
There are also expectations that the Liberals will add emergency money through `` safe restart '' deals with provinces to help child-care centres that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All of it will tease what the Liberals have privately described as major new spending being considered behind closed doors , one of the sources said .
A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said her office wo n't comment on what will or wo n't be in the fiscal update .
• Liberals ' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now • The key to fighting future pandemics ?
Old-growth forests , says mushroom guru Paul Stamets • Nova Scotia First Nation suspends lobster harvest after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have promised to make a long-term commitment to create a national child-care system , seeing it as a key way to help women whose working lives have suffered during the pandemic , in what has been dubbed a `` she-cession . ''
A report released Wednesday estimated that hundreds of thousands of women could get back into the labour force if the Liberals follow through on that pledge .
The report estimated that between 363,000 and 726,000 women in the `` prime parenting age cohort '' between 25 and 50 could join the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a national child-care program is developed .
Among them would be up to 250,000 women moving into full-time jobs .
Report author and economist Jim Stanford said the lack of accessible and affordable daycare is a key reason why fewer women in their 30s and 40s are in the workforce than men the same age .
There is also the potential for tens of thousands of construction jobs as new centres and spaces are built , along with an employment boost in the child-care sector as it expands .
`` Economists have agreed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic benefits , but we just ca n't seem to get the ball over the line in Canada , '' said Stanford , director of the Centre for Future Work .
The Liberals have promised to make a long-term commitment to create a national child-care system , seeing it as a key way to help women whose working lives have suffered during the pandemic .
# cdnpoli `` I finally think the ducks are being lined up here and we can actually make this happen , '' he added .
`` This really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ move forward , and it is a moment when Canada 's economy needs every job that it can get . ''
A recent report by RBC economists Dawn Desjardins and Carrie Freestone calculated that 20,600 women fell out of the labour force between February and October even as 68,000 more men joined it .
The situation was most acute for women ages 20 to 24 , and 35 to 39 ; one of the reasons the duo cited for the sharper drop was the pandemic-caused closure of child-care centres .
Child-care centres , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rely on steep parental fees , could n't keep up with costs during spring shutdowns and shed about 35,000 jobs between February and July .
Some centres have closed for good .
The worry , Stanford said , is job losses become permanent and more centres close without financial assistance from governments .
Scotiabank economists Jean-Francois Perrault and Rebekah Young suggested in September that creating nationally what Quebec has provincially would cost $ 11.5 billion a year .
Their analysis also suggested federal coffers could reap billions in new tax revenue as women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in greater numbers , offsetting some of the overall cost .
Stanford 's estimate is for a boost to government revenues of between $ 18 billion and $ 30 billion per year , split between federal and provincial governments .
`` This literally is a social program that pays for itself , '' Stanford said .
`` The economic benefits of giving this first-class care to early age children , and getting their mothers in the labour market working to their full potential , are enormous . ''
Getting those outcomes will rest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which will need to be done with provinces who have responsibility for daycare delivery .
Kate Bezanson , associate dean of social sciences at Brock University , said the pandemic has been an opening for greater federal-provincial collaboration .
Child care may be next , she said , to ensure women are n't left behind in a recovery .
“ We have in the pandemic seen a kind of collaboration across jurisdictions in a way we haven ’ t seen outside of wartime , '' said Bezanson , who also has expertise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be doing that .
We have to be doing that . ''
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25 , 2020 .

The federal Liberals will take small step toward a plan to create a national daycare system, with sources telling the Canadian Press next week's economic update will have money for a new federal child-care body. Sources with knowledge of the government's plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations about yet-to-be-announced measures, said the Liberals will unveil funding for the child-care secretariat next week. There are also expectations that the Liberals will add emergency money through "safe restart" deals with provinces to help child-care centres that are struggling financially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All of it will tease what the Liberals have privately described as major new spending being considered behind closed doors, one of the sources said. A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said her office won't comment on what will or won't be in the fiscal update.
The Liberals have promised to make a long-term commitment to create a national child-care system, seeing it as a key way to help women whose working lives have suffered during the pandemic, in what has been dubbed a "she-cession." A report released Wednesday estimated that hundreds of thousands of women could get back into the labour force if the Liberals follow through on that pledge. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions The report estimated that between 363,000 and 726,000 women in the "prime parenting age cohort" between 25 and 50 could join the labour force over a 10-year period as a national child-care program is developed. Among them would be up to 250,000 women moving into full-time jobs.
Report author and economist Jim Stanford said the lack of accessible and affordable daycare is a key reason why fewer women in their 30s and 40s are in the workforce than men the same age. The Liberals have promised to make a long-term commitment to create a national child-care system, seeing it as a key way to help women whose working lives have suffered during the pandemic. #cdnpoli There is also the potential for tens of thousands of construction jobs as new centres and spaces are built, along with an employment boost in the child-care sector as it expands. "Economists have agreed for years that child care has huge economic benefits, but we just can't seem to get the ball over the line in Canada," said Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work. "I finally think the ducks are being lined up here and we can actually make this happen," he added. "This really is the moment when we can finally move forward, and it is a moment when Canada's economy needs every job that it can get."
A recent report by RBC economists Dawn Desjardins and Carrie Freestone calculated that 20,600 women fell out of the labour force between February and October even as 68,000 more men joined it. The situation was most acute for women ages 20 to 24, and 35 to 39; one of the reasons the duo cited for the sharper drop was the pandemic-caused closure of child-care centres. Child-care centres, which often run on tight margins and rely on steep parental fees, couldn't keep up with costs during spring shutdowns and shed about 35,000 jobs between February and July. Some centres have closed for good.


nationalobserver--2020-11-25--Ottawa to close fisheries to protect endangered right whales detected off N.S. coast

Ottawa 's decision to close fisheries off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia after North Atlantic right whales were detected in the area is necessary to protect the endangered animals , according to an aquatic species researcher .
Fred Whoriskey , executive director at the Ocean Tracking Network , which is affiliated with Dalhousie University , said recent measures to protect the right whales are working .
“ We 've taken ourselves from having more than 10 animals being killed in Canadian waters , down to none , ” Whoriskey said in an interview Tuesday .
Tools such as underwater @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as aerial drones are helping keep the animals alive , he said .
And so are temporary closures of fisheries , Whoriskey explained .
Ottawa said that starting Thursday evening , fisheries operating within certain sections of the Roseway Basin must close until further notice .
Whoriskey said right whales previously fed in the Bay of Fundy , but recently shifted toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence in search of food .
The quick change in the whales ' migratory path resulted in an increase in right whale deaths , he added , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traffic in the Gulf .
• Liberals ' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now • The key to fighting future pandemics ?
Old-growth forests , says mushroom guru Paul Stamets • Nova Scotia First Nation suspends lobster harvest after sighting of endangered right whales Temporarily closing fisheries in the animal 's path up to the Gulf is crucial to protecting the animals , he said , which have been getting entangled in fishing gear .
The U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently estimated the right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 366 in 2019 down from 412 in 2018 .
“ Within the last few years , that pattern that we 've grown to know and love and predict things around has massively changed and we think it 's because the food production in these historic areas is beginning to turn off , probably related to climate change issues , ” he said .
“ Nobody was prepared for this , ” Whoriskey said .
“ Our fisheries were not prepared for this , our shipping industry was not prepared for this , our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He said , however , the fishery closures have been accepted by industry stakeholders in the shipping and fishing sectors as a necessity to ensure the safety of the aquatic animals .
The federal government 's temporary closure in the fishing zone off southwest Nova Scotia affects LFA 34 — one of the province 's most lucrative lobster fishing zones — and comes days before the start to the federally regulated lobster fishing season .
Other fisheries in the affected area include crab , herring and mackerel .
Groundfish vessels using fixed gear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ zone .
Ottawa to close fisheries off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia after endangered right whales were detected in the area .
# RightWhale # whales # endangeredspecies This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24 , 2020 .
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship .

Ottawa's decision to close fisheries off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia after North Atlantic right whales were detected in the area is necessary to protect the endangered animals, according to an aquatic species researcher.
Fred Whoriskey, executive director at the Ocean Tracking Network, which is affiliated with Dalhousie University, said recent measures to protect the right whales are working.
“We've taken ourselves from having more than 10 animals being killed in Canadian waters, down to none,” Whoriskey said in an interview Tuesday. Tools such as underwater gliders that track acoustic signals as well as aerial drones are helping keep the animals alive, he said.
And so are temporary closures of fisheries, Whoriskey explained. Ottawa said that starting Thursday evening, fisheries operating within certain sections of the Roseway Basin must close until further notice.
Whoriskey said right whales previously fed in the Bay of Fundy, but recently shifted toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence in search of food. The quick change in the whales' migratory path resulted in an increase in right whale deaths, he added, because of the intense fishing and shipping traffic in the Gulf.


nationalobserver--2020-11-25--Although reduced, Canada calls U.S. softwood lumber duties 'unfair,' 'unjustified'

The federal government says American duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports continue to be `` unfair '' and `` unjustified , '' even if they have been reduced .
An administrative review by the U.S. Department of Commerce imposes countervailing duties of nearly nine per cent on certain Canadian exporters , down from just over 20 per cent .
It 's the latest salvo in one of the most persistent trade irritants between Canada and the United States , a dispute that has been raging for nearly 40 years .
The lower rate appears to be the result of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission were wrong to impose the original duties in 2017. International Trade Minister Mary Ng acknowledged the lower tariffs as a step in the right direction , but insisted they remain baseless and unfair .
• Liberals ' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now • The key to fighting future pandemics ?
Old-growth forests , says mushroom guru Paul Stamets • Nova Scotia First Nation suspends lobster harvest after sighting of endangered right whales Ng says the government will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defend the interests of Canadian forestry companies and workers .
`` While reduction in tariffs for some Canadian producers is a step in the right direction , Canada is disappointed that the United States continues to impose unwarranted and unfair duties on Canadian softwood lumber , '' she said in a statement Tuesday evening .
`` These duties have caused unjustified harm to Canadian businesses and workers , as well as U.S .
consumers . ''
U.S. producers have long taken issue with Canada 's system of provincially regulated stumpage fees , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the right to harvest timber .
They say the system unfairly subsidizes an industry which in the U.S. is privately owned and operated , with pricing set by the competitive marketplace .
Canadian lumber exports play a critical role in the U.S. , where demand for wood products used in construction significantly outstrips the domestic supply .
The federal government says American duties on Canadian # softwood # lumber exports continue to be `` unfair '' and `` unjustified , '' even if they have been reduced .
# USCanada # cdnpoli @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coalition , a champion of countervailing duties against Canada , noted in a statement that the August decision by the WTO is being appealed — although the U.S. has effectively hamstrung the world body 's dispute resolution panel by refusing to appoint new members .
`` It is absolutely imperative that these flawed WTO recommendations are not allowed to undermine in any way the continued enforcement of the trade laws , '' executive director Zoltan van Heyningen said in a statement .
`` The WTO case is far from over , and as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to influence the ongoing process and the results of the second administrative review . ''
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24 , 2020 .

The federal government says American duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports continue to be "unfair" and "unjustified," even if they have been reduced.
An administrative review by the U.S. Department of Commerce imposes countervailing duties of nearly nine per cent on certain Canadian exporters, down from just over 20 per cent.
It's the latest salvo in one of the most persistent trade irritants between Canada and the United States, a dispute that has been raging for nearly 40 years.
The lower rate appears to be the result of a World Trade Organization decision in August that found Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission were wrong to impose the original duties in 2017.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng acknowledged the lower tariffs as a step in the right direction, but insisted they remain baseless and unfair.


nationalobserver--2020-11-25--The Keystone XL project nixed by John Kerry in 2015 has changed significantly, Canada's U.S. envoy s

The Keystone XL project nixed by John Kerry in 2015 has changed significantly, Canada's U.S. envoy says

President-elect Joe Biden 's new climate envoy may be the same person who nixed the Keystone XL pipeline expansion in 2015 , but the project itself has evolved significantly since then , Canada 's U.S. ambassador said Tuesday .
Biden 's choice of John Kerry as a special presidential adviser on climate might seem to be the stake through the heart of the undead $ 8-billion pipeline , considering the former secretary of state was the one swinging the hammer five years ago .
Kirsten Hillman , however , does n't see it that way .
`` Times have changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conference call after a panel discussion hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations .
`` The project itself is not the same project ; the company itself , ( TC Energy ) , has made enormous innovations ; and the sector is enormously innovative — they 're cutting their emissions in important ways . ''
• Liberals ' climate accountability bill can be saved — but only if we act now • The key to fighting future pandemics ?
Old-growth forests , says mushroom guru Paul Stamets • Nova Scotia First Nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right whales Canada , too , has evolved since then , she said , having established a long-awaited carbon-pricing system and committed to virtually eliminating emissions in 30 years — a target enshrined in legislation introduced just last week in the House of Commons .
`` Of all the countries from which the United States … can get their fossil fuels , we 're the one with a price on carbon , we 're the one with a commitment to zero emissions by 2050 , '' Hillman said .
`` So regardless of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we will bring our facts to that conversation . ''
Moments after Hillman finished speaking , Kerry took the podium in Delaware , where Biden was introducing his newly named senior cabinet appointees , and promptly framed his job as an aggressive foreign-policy endeavour .
`` To end this crisis , the whole world must come together , '' Kerry said , predicting that next year 's UN climate conference in Scotland would be the moment of truth .
`` At the global meeting in Glasgow one year from now , all nations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will all fail together .
And failure is not an option . ''
America 's new climate envoy is John Kerry nixed the # KeystoneXL pipeline expansion in 2015 , but the project itself has evolved significantly since then , Canada 's U.S. ambassador says .
# KXL # fossilfuels # climatecrisis Biden was vice-president throughout the eight years that Keystone XL became a political football for former president Barack Obama .
It was a persistent irritant to Canada-U .
S. relations and a flagship cause for progressives and environmentalists around the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to define the widening fissure between an energy industry that 's straining to redefine its mission in the 21st century and a public increasingly opposed to North America 's dependency on fossil fuels — a tension that has created deep-seated political challenges in Canada , where the oilpatch is central to the country 's economic fortunes .
Biden 's campaign left little doubt about his plans back in May , when it finally declared he was `` strongly opposed '' to the project and would `` stop it for good '' next year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump .
That has n't prevented TC Energy from doing its best to frame Keystone XL as a proposal the Biden administration can get behind , particularly as the U.S. looks for ways to kick-start its pandemic-bruised economy .
The company has awarded more than US $ 1.6 billion in contracts to American construction firms , work it says will support more than 7,000 union jobs next year , and plans a clean energy training fund worth US $ 10 million .
It has inked an investment agreement with a group representing First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ project is designed to ferry up to 830,000 additional barrels a day of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands into Nebraska and eventually to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast .
Some 200 kilometres of pipe have already been installed , including over the Canada-U .
S. border , and construction has begun on pump stations in Alberta and several U.S. states .
TC Energy spokesman Terry Cunha described Keystone XL as setting `` the standard for responsible and sustainable energy infrastructure development , '' citing efforts to enlist Indigenous equity partners and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are constantly evaluating new and innovative ways to reduce emissions and improve efficiencies , '' Cunha said in a statement .
`` We have long been committed to leadership in protecting the environment , while delivering the energy North America needs every day in the safest and most responsible means possible . ''
Notwithstanding aggressive efforts to slash emissions , fossil fuels will remain an integral part of life in both Canada and the U.S. going forward , said Hillman , which is why Keystone XL discussions need to be part of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` It 's also a project that we will discuss in the context of our entire energy relationship , and in the context of our entire relationship around climate change and carbon emission reductions , '' she said .
`` These things exist in an entire context , and that context is one where there is enormous potential for collaboration with the Americans . ''
A new report from Canada 's federal energy regulator noted Tuesday that regardless of those efforts , oil and gas is likely to remain a factor for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( greenhouse gas ) emissions by 2050 will require an accelerated pace of transition away from fossil fuels , '' the report says .
But the report projects that even with many more policies to curb emissions than are currently in place , oil and gas would still make up nearly two-thirds of energy sources three decades from now .
— With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24 , 2020 .

President-elect Joe Biden's new climate envoy may be the same person who nixed the Keystone XL pipeline expansion in 2015, but the project itself has evolved significantly since then, Canada's U.S. ambassador said Tuesday. Biden's choice of John Kerry as a special presidential adviser on climate might seem to be the stake through the heart of the undead $8-billion pipeline, considering the former secretary of state was the one swinging the hammer five years ago. Kirsten Hillman, however, doesn't see it that way. "Times have changed," the ambassador said in a conference call after a panel discussion hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. "The project itself is not the same project; the company itself, (TC Energy), has made enormous innovations; and the sector is enormously innovative — they're cutting their emissions in important ways."
Canada, too, has evolved since then, she said, having established a long-awaited carbon-pricing system and committed to virtually eliminating emissions in 30 years — a target enshrined in legislation introduced just last week in the House of Commons. "Of all the countries from which the United States … can get their fossil fuels, we're the one with a price on carbon, we're the one with a commitment to zero emissions by 2050," Hillman said. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions "So regardless of who we will be talking to, we will bring our facts to that conversation."
Moments after Hillman finished speaking, Kerry took the podium in Delaware, where Biden was introducing his newly named senior cabinet appointees, and promptly framed his job as an aggressive foreign-policy endeavour. America's new climate envoy is John Kerry nixed the #KeystoneXL pipeline expansion in 2015, but the project itself has evolved significantly since then, Canada's U.S. ambassador says. #KXL #fossilfuels #climatecrisis "To end this crisis, the whole world must come together," Kerry said, predicting that next year's UN climate conference in Scotland would be the moment of truth. "At the global meeting in Glasgow one year from now, all nations must raise ambition together, or we will all fail together. And failure is not an option." Biden was vice-president throughout the eight years that Keystone XL became a political football for former president Barack Obama. It was a persistent irritant to Canada-U. S. relations and a flagship cause for progressives and environmentalists around the world. During that time, it came to define the widening fissure between an energy industry that's straining to redefine its mission in the 21st century and a public increasingly opposed to North America's dependency on fossil fuels — a tension that has created deep-seated political challenges in Canada, where the oilpatch is central to the country's economic fortunes.
Biden's campaign left little doubt about his plans back in May, when it finally declared he was "strongly opposed" to the project and would "stop it for good" next year by rescinding approvals issued by President Donald Trump. That hasn't prevented TC Energy from doing its best to frame Keystone XL as a proposal the Biden administration can get behind, particularly as the U.S. looks for ways to kick-start its pandemic-bruised economy. The company has awarded more than US$1.6 billion in contracts to American construction firms, work it says will support more than 7,000 union jobs next year, and plans a clean energy training fund worth US$10 million. It has inked an investment agreement with a group representing First Nations in Alberta and Saskatchewan.