It’s Getting Hot In Here

“This government will firmly establish British Columbia standards for action on climate change.”

Yesterday (Feb 13), upon the opening of the Third Session of the Thirty-Eighth Parliament of the Province of British Columbia, Premier Campbell’s liberal government announced its intention to “take concerted provincial action to halt and reverse the growth in greenhouse gases.” The “Throne Speech” (full text available here) delivered by The Lieutenant Governor, The Honourable Iona Campagnolo, expressed the government’s goal of reducing BC’s greenhouse gas emissions “by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020” (in Kyoto terms: this will put BC at 10 per cent under 1990 levels by 2020). Included is a “Climate Action Team” that will set interim reduction targets for 2012 and 2016 as well as a long-term target for 2050. This team will also establish a plan to make the BC government “carbon-neutral by 2010.” Continue reading ‘BC Provincial Government to tackle Climate Change’

After reading Hannah’s blog about the recent success of the green party in Ontario, with new leader Elizabeth May (see Zoe’s blog about Elizabeth May), I’m excited about the potential of the green party gaining a lot more support and influence in the next Canadian elections. The green party faces several challenges though in getting their message out. In the past two national leader’s electoral debates the greens were shut out despite having candidates in every federal riding, this needs to change before the next election (see London Free Press editorial). If you go to the Green Party’s Demand Democratic Debates website you can join the email petition to urge the Presidents and CEOs of Canada’s news media to include the Green Party leader in the nationally-televised leaders’ debates. Not only would this promote democracy in our elections, it would inject the environment and a woman’s perspective into the debates.
Continue reading ‘Get green on (the Canadian National leaders TV debate) screen’

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Now that the UN Climate negotiations in Nairobi are over participants have had time to reflect and rethink what has happened and what still needs to happen. Of course the progress made in the negotiations does not come close to adequately addressing the magnitude and severity of our climate crisis. However, progress has been made and if we look past the (slow and convoluted) politics there are clear positive outcomes and reasons to remain optimistic. One of the outcomes that is particularly encouraging and exciting is the official launching of the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change! Many individuals and organizations (particularly the Greenpeace Solar Generation team!) have been part of bringing this initiative together. Continue reading ‘African Youth taking Initiative on Climate Change!’

On Thursday at the UN Convention on Climate Change the Contact Group of The Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) met to discuss the next steps in achieving their two year mandate in ‘reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries’. The chairs of the contact group, Mr. Hernan Carlino from Argentina and Mr. Audun Rosland from Norway, presented a draft text to work from. This text sought a compromise between the positions expressed earlier this week in the SBSTA plenary, mainly between the US wanting to take more time whereas most parties wanted to work on goals and policies. The text called for a second workshop to be held before SBSTA 26 (COP 13) where participants “should continue discussing the range of specific topics requested by SBSTA…in relation to specific possible approaches to be considered under the UNFCCC.” Chairman Rosland explained that dealing with the methodological issues of addressing deforestation emissions is difficult if they do not relate to specific goals. While this doesn’t explicitly say they would look at policy options it is implied that actionable items would be the objective and they would be linked to methodology. Continue reading ‘US Stalling while Amazon Forest is Falling’

During the weeks leading up to the Nairobi Climate negotiations the World Bank (WB) released a new report, At Loggerheads?Agricultural Expansion, Poverty Reduction, and Envirionment in the Tropical Forests. This report argues that the global value of Carbon storage in existing forests is greater than the economic value of converting them to other uses such as livestock pasture or timber. Katherine Sierra, vice president of sustainable development at the World Bank, stated that “now is the time to reduce pressures on tropical forests through a comprehensive framework that integrates sustainable forest management into the global strategy for mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity.”

Continue reading ‘Will the UNFCCC take action on climate changing deforestation?’