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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
A continental swing rightward has occurred with the European Union’s latest elections. The centre held, however right-wing parties in Germany, France, Italy and others shook off their fringe status and surged to the mainstream, powered by concerns about immigration, inflation, deindustrialization, gender and sexuality, and the mounting costs of meeting net-zero emission goals and waning interest in the environmental movement. In turn, the Green Party was thrashed. Their seat count fell from 71 to 52.
This is concerning for Green politics globally. The EU was perhaps the environmental movement’s strongest champion, with goals to be climate-neutral by 2050. While the swing right is undeniable, the impact it will have on parliament, policy and the climate is yet to be seen.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Energy: Oil and gas transition plan continues amid U.K. election
- Net Zero: Electricity council tells Ottawa to move more urgently toward net-zero goals, but also more flexibly
- Emissions: Oil and gas executives face questions about their profits and emissions plans at committee
- Murder Mystery: Dead grey whale washes ashore near Vancouver
- Fish farms: Are B.C.’s open-net pen salmon farms closing - or not?
A deeper dive
The Climate Exchange: Answering your most pressing questions about climate change
As journalists, we often say we’re not afraid to ask stupid questions – it’s important to be honest about what you don’t know. To put it another way, simply asking the question can be as important as the answer itself.
At The Globe, we believe it’s important to keep climate change at the forefront of our coverage because it affects every facet of our lives. That means asking questions.
Climate change is not some far-off, looming reality. It is here: 2023 will be remembered as the year of fire in Canada. From B.C. to Nova Scotia, the country lived through the worst and most widespread wildfire season in its history. A new fire season is now upon us and thousands of residents in British Columbia and Alberta have been evacuated (most have now returned.) There is a long wildfire season ahead.
So, does climate change cause wildfires? No. But wildfire experts, climatologists and doctors warn that as the climate warms, Canada is headed for record-breaking high temperatures, longer and increasingly intense wildfire seasons and prolonged periods of smoke exposure.
Today, we are launching The Climate Exchange, a digital hub where you can ask your most pressing questions about climate change. It’s a place where we hope to help by answering your questions, big and small, about the continuing changes and challenges around climate change. Along the way, we’ll aim to highlight the people, communities and companies who are working toward climate solutions and innovations. For the record: while RBC supports the initiative financially, the company has no say in what questions get asked or how The Globe answers them.
So how are these continuing changes going to reverberate in Canada and throughout the rest of the world – and what we should do about them? The answers to these questions are not always certain, but The Globe will talk to the topic experts and we pledge to deliver answers that are clear, concise and honest.
Thank you for your continued interest and support.
Ryan MacDonald is the senior editor for environment, resources and energy at The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about the climate exchange.
Check out The Climate Exchange.
The climate exchangeBein, Sierra/Supplied
What else you missed
- Ottawa rolls out $530-million fund to help municipalities adapt to climate change
- Wildfires underscore resiliency challenges for Canada’s telecoms
- Electricity council tells Ottawa to move more urgently toward net-zero goals, but also more flexibly
- Disaster survivors bring pleas for climate change action to Parliament Hill
- Two small communities are competing to receive Canada’s inventory of nuclear waste. They can’t be sure what they’ll get
- Residents against Quebec graphite mine fear powering Pentagon, environmental ruin
- B.C. looks into postfire mushroom picking rush after First Nation reports conflicts
- Little transparency for Saskatchewan’s industrial carbon levy program, auditor says
- World hits streak of record temperatures as UN calls for urgent action to avert ‘climate hell’
- Wildfire plan calls for 50 per cent of Canadians to act in response to climate change by 2025
Opinion and analysis
Karen Pinchin: Masked bandits are taking over the world, one trash can at a time
Tony Keller: How do I hate thee, PBO carbon-tax analysis? Let me count the ways
Green Investing
Ottawa is hedging bets that a public-service veteran turned academic can bring scandal-plagued Sustainable Development Technology Canada back into the light. The green-technology funding agency will cease to be a standalone foundation with its own board of directors and will now be placed under the National Research Council. Minister Paul Boothe will be head of a three-person board overseeing the transition.
The move follows a damning report released by the Auditor-General detailing a series of conflict-of-interest breaches and ineligible funding over a six-year period, including awarding tens of millions to companies with ties to its own directors and managers.
The change is much-needed. Many small companies are in desperate need after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne froze funding on new grants for new projects in October. The Minister said Tuesday he was lifting the suspension.
- ESG Investors are hitting the road. Don’t blame them. The investing standards are broken and need fixing
- Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm may have to change strategy as company enters new round of upheaval
- Glencore’s climate action plan wins more support from shareholders
- Nationalist movements are on the rise. Here’s how to invest to prepare for the new era of politics
Photo of the week
Lead ranger Sumini, left, and Muhammad Saleh, center, put on a red tape around a tree to mark it for villagers not to cut it down, on a part of the forest that has been cleared by villagers to make way for a coffee plantation, during a forest patrol in Damaran Baru, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Unregulated deforestation from irresponsible farming practices and abuse of forest resources have led to disastrous consequences, Sumini said.Dita Alangkara/The Associated Press
Guides and Explainers
- Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP28 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.
Catch up on Globe Climate
- At the water cooler of Canadian sustainable finance
- Indigenous impact fund champions outcomes-based finance
- The one with great gardening advice
- Prevention and preparation as wildfire season begins
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