Weekly roundup of local and international climate change news for the week of Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, 2024.
Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems to all the latest science.
In climate news this week:
• Vancouver city votes to overturn amendment allowing natural gas in new buildings
• Study of 2023 Okanagan wildfires recommends limiting development
• Millions of tons of plastic foul the world
Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface temperature.
The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as B.C.’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and more intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a “code red” for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.
According to NASA climate scientists, “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate” and that human activity is the principal cause.
Climate change quick facts:
• The Earth is now about 1.3 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.
• 2023 was hottest on record globally, beating the last record in 2016. However scientists say 2024 will likely beat the 2023 record.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
• On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much 3.6 C this century, according to the IPCC.
• In April, 2022 greenhouse gas concentrations reached record new highs and show no sign of slowing.
• Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C and 2.7 per cent per year to stay below 2 C.
• 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that the climate is warming and that human beings are the cause.
Latest News
Vancouver city votes to overturn amendment allowing natural gas in new buildings
Vancouver city council has voted to overturn an amendment made on the fly this summer allowing natural gas in new buildings.
Councillor Pete Fry posted on Bluesky Wednesday, saying “the nays have it,” adding that councillor Brian Montague’s July amendment to introduce gas for space and hot water heating in new construction has failed.
Fry, along with councillors Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, Peter Meiszner and Adriane Carr, opposed the amendment, arguing it was not in line with the city’s climate change goals to reduce emissions.
—Dan Fumano, Tiffany Crawford
![VANCOUVER, B.C. November 25, 2024 - Demonstration in opposition to Vancouver city council's reversal on allowing natural gas in new builds, at Vancouver City Hall in Vancouver, B.C. on November 25, 2024. (NICK PROCAYLO/PNG) 10106497A [PNG Merlin Archive]](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/png1126ngasdemo-01.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=nZi1nVST37R43rlkiZP2Fw)
‘The wrong decision’: ABC Vancouver majority fails to get its way as natural gas push fails
A much-watched Vancouver council vote on natural gas this week was the first time a major policy decision did not go the way of the ABC party majority.
On Wednesday night, council split 5-5 on bylaw amendments that would have allowed the use of natural gas for heating and hot water in new buildings. A tie means the amendments are not approved.
It meant the city will not reverse course after all on a policy adopted in 2020 by the previous council. That policy aims to gradually reduce the burning of natural gas, which city staff estimate makes up 57 per cent of carbon emissions in Vancouver.
In July, the ABC-majority council — by a 6-5 margin — ordered city staff to prepare amendments to the building bylaw to reintroduce the option of using natural gas in new buildings.
The key vote Wednesday came from ABC Coun. Rebecca Bligh, who supported the decision in July but this week opposed the bylaw change, voting against most of her party colleagues, including the mayor.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Bligh said she believed council’s July decision was based, in part, on “information that was incomplete and some information that was wrong.”
—Dan Fumano
Study of 2023 Okanagan wildfires recommends limiting development in high-risk areas
A study into the devastating wildfires that struck the Okanagan in 2023 has recommended that government and industry limit development in high-fire-risk areas.
The study, conducted by non-profit FP Innovations on the request of the B.C. FireSmart Committee and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, looked into the 2023 Grouse complex of wildfires that included the McDougall Creek blaze.
The fires burned more than 300 buildings, forced more than 30,000 people to flee, and caused about $480 million in insured losses.
The case study found that embers and not direct contact with advancing flames were “almost exclusively” responsible for helping wildfires move into neighbourhoods.
The report also found that the presence of flammable materials within 10 metres of structures played a crucial role in whether it survived the wildfires.
The study’s recommendations included limiting development, increasing zoning bylaw setbacks for structures in heavily forested areas, and improving landscaping and fencing regulations to “establish non-combustible zones around structures.”
—The Canadian Press
Vancouver Coun. Adriane Carr considers quitting council after being stripped of Metro climate role
Green Coun. Adriane Carr, Vancouver’s longest serving councillor, says she is “seriously considering” resigning before the end of the term, raising the possibility a second council seat could be up for grabs in next spring’s byelection.
Carr said she plans to take the Christmas holidays to make a final decision, but she is thinking about resigning her seat as soon as January.
Carr’s thinking is driven by both professional and personal considerations, she said. On the personal side, Carr said she wants to be able to spend more time with her husband, Wilderness Committee co-founder Paul George, her children and their partners, and her three grandchildren.
And professionally, Carr said she has been frustrated by being marginalized on Vancouver’s current ABC-majority council, and worries about the reigning party’s “regressive” moves, especially on climate and sustainability issues.
“The tipping point was being removed from the responsibilities I loved,” Carr said, referring to ABC Mayor Ken Sim’s decision last month to strip Carr and other non-ABC councillors of extra roles.
Carr will no longer serve as a Metro Vancouver director, part of Metro’s climate action committee, and Vancouver’s representative on the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, or ZEIC.
—Dan Fumano
Millions of tons of plastic foul the world around us
On a Philippines beach, barefoot children jumped and played on shoals of plastic washed ashore in previous typhoons.
Much of the world’s plastic garbage winds up in rivers that eventually carry it into the oceans. Along the way, it’s often ingested by fish, birds and other wildlife, like the trio of coots picking their way through the plastic refuse cluttering a Serbian river.
Plastic, a wondrously versatile material that can be contorted into endless shapes useful in everything from construction to packaging, is also a scourge.
It’s a problem that nations are trying to tackle in South Korea, where a final round of negotiations is underway on a legally binding treaty aimed at solutions.
Its use has exploded in the last half century, and global production is projected to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70 per cent from 2020, without policy changes, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Only about 9 per cent of that is recycled, and much of the rest winds up in the world all around us.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, roadside garbage piled so high it threatened to elbow its way into traffic. And in a New Delhi shanty town, with seemingly every inch of the landscape choked with plastic waste, bags awaited sorting by collectors who hope to resell it. And in Saint-Marc, Haiti, a boy took in an ocean sunset from a perch surrounded by plastic and other garbage.
—The Associated Press
South Korean politician calls for investigation of biomass energy material imported from Indonesia
A South Korean National Assembly member has called for a moratorium on wood pellet imports from Indonesia and an investigation into their environmental impacts after government data and satellite analysis linked the country’s biomass imports to deforestation in Indonesia.
“We should stop imports of wood pellets … and it’s important for our government to investigate exactly what kinds of environmental destruction is occurring on the spot,” Moon Dae-Lim, a lawmaker with South Korea’s main liberal opposition Democratic Party, said in recent written responses to questions from The Associated Press. “Identifying and correcting potential risks in supply chains and value chains is key to a sustainable project.”
Biomass can come from organic material like plants, wood and waste, and many coal-fired power plants can be easily modified to burn it alongside coal to make energy. As countries accelerate their energy transitions, demand for biomass is growing: The use of bioenergy has increased an average of about 3 per cent per year between 2010 and 2022, the International Energy Agency said. Experts including the IEA say it’s important for that demand to happen in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residue rather than converting forest land to grow bioenergy crops.
In South Korea, bioenergy has grown to become the second-largest source of renewable energy and over 80% of its main raw material _ energy-dense wood pellets — is dependent on imports, according to a policy report on the state audit authored by Moon and published in October.
—The Associated Press
Guilbeault says he won’t back off carbon tax, oil and gas cap despite Trump’s tariffs
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday that the looming threat of a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian exports to the United States won’t dissuade him from pursuing an ambitious climate action plan, anchored by the federal carbon tax.
“Of course, we’re going to continue with the carbon tax because it creates jobs,” Guilbeault told a House of Commons committee studying Canada’s emissions policies. “It helps us to promote investment and reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.”
The Liberal government ratcheted up the carbon levy from $65 to $80 a tonne in April, ignoring widespread calls for a pause in the scheduled increase. The price will rise by an additional $15 per year until it hits $170 a tonne in 2030.
Guilbeault said on Wednesday that no plans had been made about price increases after 2030.
The environment minister also defended his ministry’s controversial draft regulations for a cap on oil and gas emissions, unveiled earlier this month.
“Measures like the proposed pollution cap are crucial in addressing emissions from Canada’s highest polluting sectors,” Guilbeault said in a short opening statement.
—National Post
Alberta’s pledge to take over ownership of emissions data ’irresponsible’: Guilbeault
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Alberta’s plan to make greenhouse gas emissions data the property of the provincial government could lead to oil and gas companies breaking federal laws.
It’s one of many steps Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government would take to challenge the federal Liberal government’s proposed emissions cap if it comes into force.
Smith has said the cap is unconstitutional and harmful to Alberta, and on Tuesday she announced a series of steps her government would take under her untested Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act to try and circumvent the cap, including a court challenge.
Smith said she’d also have the province take over the responsibility of emissions reporting to the federal government, something major emitters are now required to do. Emitters would be responsible for sharing that information with Ottawa under the proposed cap program as well.
A draft sovereignty act motion shared with media Tuesday said the province intends to declare “that all information or data related directly or indirectly to greenhouse gas emissions … are proprietary information and data that are owned exclusively by the government of Alberta.”
Guilbeault told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday that Smith is being “highly irresponsible.”
“It’s more irresponsible behaviour by the premier of Alberta,” he said.
—The Canadian Press
Spain introduces paid climate leave after deadly floods: media report
The media report says that several companies came under fire after the 29 October catastrophe for ordering employees to keep working despite a red alert issued by the national weather agency.
The new measure aims to “regulate in accordance with the climate emergency” so that “no worker must run risks”, labour minister Yolanda Díaz told public broadcaster RTVE.
—The Guardian