Renewable Energy

Not only are the rich getting richer in Canada, they're also creating more greenhouse-gas emissions on a per-person basis, a new study says.

Because of this, more affluent Canadians should take on more of the burden in efforts to fight global warming, concludes this report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.... Read more »

Federal and provincial programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions won’t even get Canada half of the way toward meeting the reduction targets that have been set for 2020.

But the fact that they will even go that far is being presented as a sign of progress in a new report. Such are the low expectations surrounding the policies to tackle global warming in the country.

The study, by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a respected, non-partisan environmental think-tank, suggests Canada is on track to cut out 103 megatonnes of greenhouse gases by 2020. That works out to 46 per cent of the emissions reduction goal that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set for the country.

The gap is equal to 120 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, says the report by Dave Sawyer, the institute’s climate change director.
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Demonstration planned for Nov. 6 in Washinton.

Make History on November 6  
We're about to ask you to do something extraordinary. Something world changing. Something righteous. Something to use up those frequent-flier miles.

On November 6, meet us in Washington, D.C., to join hands in a ring around the White House. Together, thousands of us will send President Obama a message he might overlook on his Blackberry: We want clean energy. Tar sands oil is not in our national interest. And the Keystone XL pipeline must neverget a presidential permit. ... Read more »

Environmental groups say more than 5,000 people have written to the federal government demanding tougher rules for coal-fired power plants.

Wednesday marked the end of a 60-day period for public comments on new regulations that will govern those power plants in the future.

The rules have been controversial because they won't kick in until July, 2015 and apply only to coal-fired power plants built after that date.

Environmental groups said at a press conference Thursday the proposed regulations are too "weak" and will do very little to move Canada towards its greenhouse gas emissions targets.... Read more »

The Canadian Environmental Network is reeling from the elimination of its core funding by Environment Canada, and last week the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency told the Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development that it’s bracing for a 43 per cent cut to its budget for 2012-2013. Green Party leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) says the government is waging war on the environment.

The Canadian Environmental Network, which has facilitated communication between the federal government and community-based environmental groups for over three decades, was notified that it would lose its core federal funding of $547,000 next year.
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