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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Happy voting day! You can follow our election updates on our live blog all day. Want to stay tuned in after election day? Sign up for our Politics Briefing newsletter to continue to follow the moves of the newly elected government.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Agriculture: Could strawberries grow in Canada year-round? An Ontario greenhouse is trying
- Corporate disclosure: CSA shelves rules for climate, diversity reforms
- Politics: National Bank CEO says next prime minister must overhaul emissions cap and energy assessment rules
- Gardening: How to plant an eco-friendly space that will invite birds, bees and butterflies
- Art: Power Plant’s unusual summer offering invites viewers into seductive encounters with nature
- Analysis from The Narwhal: The site of an infamous B.C. mining disaster could get even bigger. This First Nation is going to court — and ‘won’t back down’
A deeper dive
People watch from downtown Kelowna, B.C., as the McDougall Creek wildfire burns in the hills on Aug. 17, 2023.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
This election isn’t about climate change
For this week’s deeper dive, a look at the climate plans from the parties.
Last week, Justine Hunter, a Globe and Mail political reporter based out of Victoria, explained why this was a federal election campaign without a climate plan.
Long story short: While trade dominates, the environment is taking a back seat among other issues this election cycle. “The two main parties vying to form the next government have spent little time debating the future of Canada’s climate action plans,” she writes.
In last week’s Morning Update newsletter, Justine highlighted some of the points from each party, and why climate has fallen down the list in importance this year.
Pumpjacks draw out oil and gas from a wellhead near Calgary on May 12, 2024.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Here are some quick highlights or promises from party platforms; to see the full list check out our voter’s guide.
Liberals
- Improve the system for industrial carbon pricing (they already scraped consumer carbon pricing)
- Work with provinces and territories on ways that large emitters can support the consumer adoption of items such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
- Extend tax credits for carbon removal and sequestration to 2035, and speed up the approval of clean-energy projects.
- Protect more freshwater from foreign actors by developing a national water security strategy, create at least 10 national parks and marine conservation areas and bolster Indigenous stewardship.
Conservatives
- Repeal the law facilitating all carbon pricing, including the federal industrial carbon tax backstop for provinces and territories without their own systems in place.
- Scrap the emissions cap on oil and gas production.
- Use tax credits to reward clean manufacturing and production to help lower emissions.
- Use Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to export cleaner resources such as liquified natural gas and technologies to help lower global emissions.
People play volleyball at the City Park beach in downtown Kelowna, B.C., as thick smoke from the McDougall Creek wildfire burning nearby fills the air on Aug. 19, 2023.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
NDP
- Keep the industrial carbon pricing.
- Eliminate oil and gas subsidies, redirecting $18-billion to a home retrofit program.
- Pass an environmental bill of rights and establish an office of environmental justice.
- Introduce a border-carbon adjustment (ensure imported goods are subject to the same carbon pricing as domestically produced goods).
- Retrofit 3.3 million homes with energy-saving upgrades, saving up to $4,500 a year for each family.
Bloc Québécois
- Ensure that Quebec’s environmental policy takes precedence over federal laws.
- Ensure that federal decisions are assessed for their effect on the Paris Agreement’s efforts to limit global warming.
- A cap on GHG emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector, as well as the elimination of all subsidies to the fossil fuel sector.
- Push for a tax on the profits of oil and gas companies and invest the revenues in adaptation.
- End offshore oil exploration in marine protected areas.
Green Party
- A series of deadlines for key points of climate action that include: a ban on the sale of passenger gas vehicles by 2030, measures to enable the delivery of 100-per-cent renewable electricity to Canadians by 2035, and a full phase-out of fossil-fuel production and exports by 2045.
- A “Polluter Pays Act” that would ensure companies responsible for environmental damage bear the full cost of cleanup and climate adaptation.
What else you missed
- Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil industry hoping election brings sea change
- Yukon politicians threaten contempt over mine manager’s refusal to answer questions
- More than 80% of the world’s coral reefs hit by worst bleaching event on record
- Lawsuits accuse insurers of colluding to drop coverage in fire-prone parts of California
- Britain’s much higher prices for EV charging can’t be our future
- U.S. State Department nixes climate office, revamps energy bureau, sources say
Opinion and analysis
Thomas Gunton: Canada’s new pipeline push will turn out to be a costly blunder
Ashley Nunes: When it comes to oil and energy, it’s hard to tell the Liberals and Conservatives apart
Diane Orihel: Without Canada, there is no Canadian environment to protect
Green Investing
Canadian climate philanthropy campaign climbs to nearly $500-million
A campaign enlisting wealthy families and foundations to fund climate-related causes across Canada has added $76-million in donations, with the bulk earmarked for a research institute at the University of Toronto that will span numerous faculties.
- World’s biggest companies have caused US$28-trillion in climate damage, study estimates
- The actions we take as businesses have tremendous impact in our fight against climate change
The Climate Exchange
We’ve launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers’ questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.
Photo of the week
People take part in an Earth Day rally in Montreal on April 26.Graham Hughes/The Canadian 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 COP29 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
- Safe drinking water on the campaign trail
- Promising signs from whale calving season
- Nostalgic gardens make a comeback
- Great Lakes caught up in trade war
We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.