Climate Change Monitor

Vancouver Sun | Alister Doyle | Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

Climate talks by the Group of 20 and a suggested shift to majority voting for UN decisions could revive work on a new pact to fight global warming after the low-ambition Copenhagen summit, analysts say.

The Star | Richard Gwyn | Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

Over the past several weeks, a great foofaraw has developed over the discovery that the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the global authority on the subject, have contained a series of mistakes.

The Globe and Mail | Norman Spector | Friday, Feb 12, 2010

The Star | Rob Ferguson | Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

A highly paid bureaucrat hand-picked by Premier Dalton McGuinty to be his climate-change adviser has quietly left the government following criticism of his salary and the province's failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Star has learned.

Globe and Mail | Gary Mason | Monday, Oct. 12, 2009

RTTNews | 10/13/2009

Ahead of the crucial Copenhagen summit in December, the stalemate over carbon emission cuts continued at the Bangkok Climate Change talks with developed countries refusing to abide by the Kyoto Protocol's greenhouse gas emission target.

Su Wei, head of the Chinese delegation to the climate negotiations in Bangkok, said some developed countries adopted "passive attitude" in combating climate change at the talks.

Scotland’s world-leading position on tackling climate change was the subject of high-level talks between John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, and Stavros Dimas, the European Environment Commissioner, in Brussels today.

Canwest News Service | Mike DeSouza | October 12, 2009

A provocative public awareness campaign is hitting the streets in 20 hotly contested federal ridings, urging voters to pressure the Harper government to do more to fight climate change on the eve of a major international summit in Copenhagen.

Canwest News Service | Mike de Souza | October 4, 2009

OTTAWA — A major player in Canada's oil and gas sector is warning that both the economy and the environment are in danger in the absence of a "robust" federal plan to crack down on heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere.

Edmonton Journal | Archie McLean | October 4, 2009

EDMONTON — Two Greenpeace activists from outside Canada defended their oilsands protests Monday after Premier Ed Stelmach called them "tourists," who threatened the province's livelihood.

Vancouver Sun | Tracy Sherlock | October 6, 2009

VANCOUVER — Movie stars, politicians and environmentalists crowded the green carpet Tuesday evening at the Vancouver premiere of The Age of Stupid, a new movie about global warming.

Reuters | David Fogarty | Wed Oct 7, 2009

BANGKOK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Senior G77 members walked out of a meeting during climate talks in the Thai capital saying they would not discuss a future without the Kyoto Protocol climate pact, delegates said on Wednesday.

South Africa's lead negotiator, China and OPEC countries left the informal session late on Tuesday that was discussing the shape of new climate agreement that would bind all nations in the fight against climate change.

China View | Huang Xin, Wang Yaguang and Gao Tian

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- On the Loess Plateau in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, forests and grass planted in the past decade have turned the bare sandy terrain green -- the result of the national campaign to return cropland to forest and grass, begun in late 1990s.

CBC.News | Tuesday, September 22, 2009

"The threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing," Obama said Tuesday. "Our generation's response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it — boldly, swiftly and together — we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe."

Bloomberg.net | Daniel Whitten | Sept. 29, 2009

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) - PG&E Corp. quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Nike Inc. and Johnson & Johnson criticized the group for its stance. Duke Energy Corp. resigned from the National Association of Manufacturers.

Agence France-Presse | Martin Abbugao | 09/29/2009

MANILA, Philippines – The massive floods that inundated the Philippine capital were a chilling reminder of the need to seriously address climate change, experts said, warning that the lives of millions were at stake.

More rain fell on Manila and surrounding regions in nine hours on Saturday than the amount Hurricane Katrina dumped on New Orleans in 2005.

Montreal Gazette | MONIQUE BEAUDIN | September 28, 2009

The federal government’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are too low, and Premier Jean Charest said yesterday he is trying to get Ottawa into a “good position” on climate change ahead of a major international meeting on the topic in Denmark in December.

Montreal Gazette | HENRY AUBIN | August 6, 2009

In 1975, a book called Montreal at the Crossroads, by three Gazette reporters, dealt with the big local question of the day - would Montrealers stand back and watch the real-estate investment then pouring into the city continue to raze heritage buildings and established neighbourhoods, or would they insist on pro-conservation policies?

CBC News | Sunday, September 27, 2009

More than 100 Canadians gathered in Calgary this weekend as part of a global consultation on climate change.

Participants drafted recommendations to be presented to delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Associated Press | Michael Casey and Denis D. Gray | Tuesday, September 29, 2009

BANGKOK – The United Nations on Monday warned world leaders they have only 70 days to reach a new deal to limit global warming.

"Time is not just pressing. It has almost run out," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said of leaders' dwindling time before they meet in Copenhagen to finalize a pact.

Travel Weekly | Ian Taylor | 24 September 2009

British Airways (BA) boss Willie Walsh outlined a landmark agreement to cut airline carbon emissions by 50% to the United Nations this week.

Walsh called for a global agreement on aviation emissions to emerge from the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December. Aviation leaders want "a global approach" as an alternative to airlines joining the European emissions trading scheme in 2012.

The Salt Lake Tribune | Brett Prettyman | 09/24/2009

Evidence of climate change and its impact on wildlife is mounting, from costal refuges inundated with salt water as oceans rise to wildlife spotted in seasons and places where they've never been seen.

In Utah, concern has arisen for such sensitive species as pika -- a high altitude mammal that could vanish as temperatures climb -- and native cutthroat trout that don't fare as well as their exotic cousins in warm water conditions.

COLOMBO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has called upon world leaders gathering in New York to seize the historic opportunity before the Copenhagen climate summit to be held in December, the Maldivian president's office said Wednesday on its official website.

Calgary Herald | Deborah Yedlin | September 23, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama sounded the warning bell over many issues throughout this morning’s address to the United Nations – political, environmental and economic. While some of the messages were predictable – the need to stabilize the global financial system and the need for peace in the Middle East – it was his position on the environment that might have raised a few eyebrows.

Lee-Anne Goodman (CP)

NEW YORK — Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Canada on Tuesday against accusations from a growing chorus of international critics that the country is lagging behind on climate-change efforts.

"Canada's come a long way from where we were," Harper said Tuesday outside New York's City Hall, where he'd paid a courtesy call to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

SUN MEDIA | Elizabeth Thompson  | 22nd September 2009

OTTAWA — Canada has to work closely with the United States when it comes to climate change and push for developing countries like China and India to adopt firm targets to reduce greenhouse gases, Environment Minister Jim Prentice says.

Globe and Mail | Justine Hunter | Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009

Victoria —  B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is reuniting with his fellow climate change champion, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Los Angeles next week. The California Governor has invited the Premier to speak the Governors' Global Climate Summit, a gathering of politicians, scientists and business leaders – “a group of dedicated stewards of the environment coming together to find lasting solutions to global climate change.”

Canadian Press | Sue Baile

OTTAWA — Canada is caught in a leadership void as it lags other countries on world poverty and climate change, says the editor of the influential British medical journal The Lancet.

Ottawa's foot-dragging is part of a "catastrophic" global failure to act, Dr. Richard Horton said Wednesday as his call for Canada to step up was published online.

Canwest News Service | Mike De Souza | September 24, 2009

The numbers won't add up in the Harper government's proposed climate-change plan unless it fixes flaws that jeopardize the plan's credibility, say some of North America's largest provincial and state governments.