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The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada online book launch
The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada online book launch Register for the event here. The climate crisis is here, and the end of this world—a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide—is on the horizon. The authors of the newly released book The End of This World: Climate …
The future of university divestment campaigns: Reflections from inside the movement
To an outsider, university divestment campaigns might look like a hopeful but impractical social movement led by naive cadres of sign-waving students. The truth, however, is that divestment is more successful and has more transformative potential than what first appears. Largely hidden but tightly woven connections between universities, finance and fossil fuels have provided ongoing …
Can CleanBC reach its 2030 GHG target? A closer look at industrial emissions
In the wake of negotiations in Glasgow to push forward global climate action, it is clear that rich countries and jurisdictions like BC are not doing enough to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the heels of Glasgow, the massive flooding in southern BC should be another wake-up call on top of a year of …
LNG exports will doom BC’s emissions reduction goals
When the provincial government announced its CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 on Oct. 25, conspicuously absent was any mention of BC’s LNG export aspirations, which will increase emissions from the oil and gas sector and likely doom any chance of meeting BC’s emissions reduction targets. The LNG Canada project under construction in Kitimat includes a gas-fired …
Albertans have a right to be outraged…about the $3.5 million Allan Inquiry
Last week Albertans received the fruits of the Kenney Government’s inquiry into foreign-funded “anti-Alberta” activities targeting the oil and gas industry. The $3.5 million report, a year late and a million dollars over budget, found no evidence of illegal activities or wrongdoing on the part of any individual or organization targeted by the Inquiry. When …
For climate’s sake, Canada Pension Plan needs to take a serious look at its investments
The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) manages the pensions of 20 million Canadians. In a recent Corporate Mapping Project report, we found that the CPP has increased the number of shares it owns in fossil fuel companies since Canada signed the Paris Agreement five years ago. The CPP’s total fossil fuel investments across its entire portfolio …
Regime of Obstruction: Book Excerpt
The Book Publishers Association of Alberta awarded Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy the Scholarly & Academic Book of the Year award at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards in September 2022. Edited by William K. Carroll Athabasca University Press The book is available for purchase, free PDF download and free online reading. …
Federal COVID-19 Funding to Alberta’s Oil Patch “Not Well Spent”
EDMONTON and OTTAWA –– A new report by the Parkland Institute and Oxfam Canada exposes how $1 billion in federal COVID-19 emergency funding transferred to the Alberta government is failing to achieve its intended social and environmental objectives. When funding to clean up orphaned and abandoned oil wells in Western Canada was announced in April …
Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy
The Book Publishers Association of Alberta awarded Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy the Scholarly & Academic Book of the Year award at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards in September 2022. The book is available for purchase, free PDF download and free online reading. From the publisher Rapidly rising carbon emissions from …
Net zero emissions: muddying the waters or real solutions?
VANCOUVER – Increasingly, government and industry talk about “net zero” when it comes to emissions reduction targets. But what does this really mean? Reducing emissions to zero is a clear concept, but “net zero” muddies the waters in that some greenhouse gas or carbon emissions are permitted as long as they are balanced by “negative …
Canada’s Carbon Conundrum and the Difficult Path Forward
Since the first oil well was drilled in 1859 humans have been on a roll. Global population has increased more than six-fold and energy use per capita has grown more than nine-fold. Accompanying this explosive growth in energy use was unprecedented economic expansion— since 1965 global GDP has grown 6.8-fold and per capita GDP has …
Fossilized Finance: How Canada’s banks enable oil and gas production
Despite Canada’s climate change commitments, the country’s “big five” banks continue to finance and support the expansion of fossil fuel industries. In fact, the extent of the banks’ support since the oil price collapse in 2014 shows that this backing hinders Canada’s progress on reducing emissions. These banks are perhaps the most powerful corporate entities …