decarbonizing

Negotiators at a critical United Nations climate conference prepared on Wednesday to wrap up their first week of work with moderate progress on some issues, with little time to make a bit more headway before government ministers return for a final week that will shape the planet's path forward in the face of crisis.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has asked Canada to form closer ties during a visit to Ottawa that experts say comes at a time when the two countries have significant geopolitical alignment.

Spraying aerosols and sucking carbon out of the air would bring down temperatures, yes. But the unintended consequences of geoengineering could be enormous.

“Canada has one of the most emissions-intensive economies in the world,” and achieving net zero by 2050 will “require a major transformation of Canada’s energy system, including a deep decarbonization of energy production and use,” wrote a senior bureaucrat in a memo to the deputy minister.

G7 countries reaffirm commitment to limit global heating to 1.5 C after nearly two days of wrangling last week.

A resolution calling for the Anglo-Dutch company to set binding carbon emissions reduction targets received 30 per cent of votes at the oil company’s annual meeting on Tuesday.

The fund is the latest addition to the Low Carbon Cities Canada network run by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, joining cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

If the federal government wants to pursue bold climate plans, they can’t do it without cities, and cities can’t do it without more power and fiscal capacity, writes columnist Andrea Reimer.