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Gallon Environment Letter: What's New
Updated 24 March 2015
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March 24, 2015 The Honoured Reader (free edition) of the Gallon Environment Letter Vol. 18, No. 9, March 17, 2015 posted as current issue
THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER
Canadian
Institute for Business and the Environment
Fisherville,
Ontario, Canada
Vol.
18, No. 9, March 17, 2015
Honoured
Reader Editon
Table of Contents
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Editorial
by Editor Colin Isaacs: THE ECONOMIST PARTY OF CANADA HAS A LOT OF GREEN
IDEAS
FEATURE:
CLIMATE TALKS
WUPPERTAL:
VIEW ON THE LIMA TALKS RESULTS
THE
BUSINESS CASE FOR A RESPONSE TO CLIMATE
WORKING
GROUP ON THE DURBAN PLATFORM FOR ENHANCED ACTION: FROM LIMA TO PARIS
WRI:
Positive View of ADP Talks
LIMA
TALKS: IMPORTANT ROLE OF SUBNATIONAL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN CLIMATE POLICY
A
LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM KEN OGILVIE REGARDING THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENTS
NEW DISCUSSION PAPER ON CLIMATE CHANGE
ENGOS
MARCH: PREMIERS ACT ON CLIMATE
Faith-based NGO: Climate Change and Caring for Creation
Faith-based NGO: Climate Change and Caring for Creation
LOCAL BUSINESS: RELUCTANT TO FUND LOCAL GROUP CALLED CLIMATE ACTION
CANADA'S
CLIMATE TARGET NOT ON TARGET
Extract
from Parliamentary Record
BIOENERGY
LAND USE: UNSUSTAINABLE
FOSSIL
FUELS, SUBSIDIES AND CLIMATE TALKS
OECD:
GREEN TAPE NOT CAUSE OF ECONOMIC DISADVANTAGE
GREENLID
ON DRAGONS' DEN
ANTI-TERRORISM
BILL - TOO MUCH TRUST, NOT ENOUGH VERIFY
READING
GALLONDAILY
If you enjoy
Gallon Environment Letter or find it useful for your work or interests,
may we recommend the GallonDaily report. Found at http://www.gallondaily.com , GallonDaily provides short articles and reports on topics
of particular interest to green businesses. One article appears almost
every day Monday to Friday - we recommend visiting at least once a week.
Our real enthusiasts can also sign up for email notification as new articles
are posted.
Recent articles:
- Feeding bread to birds is not a good idea but don’t let us discourage you or your family from feeding birds
- 3M adopts more sustainable pulp and paper sourcing policy
- Many more Canadians concerned about the environment than about terrorism
- Bloomberg solution may be the best bet for Keystone XL and the climate
- Food waste reduction initiatives can help the economy
- How much industry self-regulation is too much?
- Research finds subtle connection between diethylhexyl phthalate and sexual change in infant males
- US Government scientific panel explores food sustainability
- Very cold winter in eastern North America may be linked to warming of the Arctic
- Evidence suggests mercury a possible factor in autoimmune disease in women
- Marine plastic pollution and seafood safety
- Cautionary case study: a climate change mitigation initiative that increased GHG emissions
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ABOUT THIS ISSUE
In this issue
we review some of the recent developments in climate change that arise
out of the December Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, held in Lima, Peru. The volume of UNFCCC-related
literature is becoming so great, as the world's nations gear up (or down,
in a few cases) for the Paris Conference at the end of this year, that
we can only bring GallonLetter readers a brief overview. Nevertheless
we hope you find it interesting and useful. We will update our perspective
on the prospects for the Paris conference later this Spring.
Before we
get to the climate change feature we have an editorial commentary on the
Economist Party of Canada. According to Statistics Canada's 2011 National
Household Survey there are about 15,000 economists and economic policy
researchers and analysts in Canada, so perhaps this group could become
a core constituency for the federal Green Party!
On the Paris
meeting we draw on a report from the Wuppertal Institute which presents
a succinct state of negotiations. Not too encouraging. Since December
another meeting, seen by some as more positive, has been held in Geneva.
We present a brief summary.
GallonLetter
believes that business could provide economically sound leadership in
climate action. So does a professor of Political Science at the University
of Toronto. We link you to his book.
Three Canadian
provinces may be playing a role in bringing subnational (provincial and
state) governments to the Paris negotiations. We alert you to this possibly
interesting initiative. Environmental groups are urging action, small
business less so. Our summary gives readers an idea of what is being said.
Well-known environmental policy consultant Ken Ogilvie wrote to us with
an opinion on the Ontario climate change discussion paper, currently out
for consultation, so we pass on his comments, with which we entirely agree.
We publish relevant letters whether we agree or not, as long as they add
something useful to the debate, so please send your comments about anything
you read in Gallon Environment Letter, or that is relevant to business,
the environment, and sustainable development to editor@gallonletter.ca.
And then of
course there is the position of the Government of Canada. Much has been
said, much less done, but Gallon Environment Letter recaps the numbers
and the words.
Biofuels have been presented as one major contributor to climate change mitigation but not so fast, says the well-respected World Resources Institute. Their position is interesting but may not be complete.
Something
the Economist Party seems to have omitted from its platform is the ending
of subsidies to fossil fuels. But IISD has filled the breach with a new
report on removing such subsidies. A high level federal working group,
on which GallonLetter's editor served, recommended removal of subsidies
to the fossil energy industry back in 1994. Twenty-one years later, governments
continue to subsidize fossil fuels.
GallonLetter
readers probably already know that economy and environment are not mutually
exclusive but instead go hand in hand but it is still heartwarming when
as prestigious a body as the OECD states the same thing. We review their
latest paper on this topic.
It is not
often that GallonLetter gets to write about Dragons' Den, as a result
of a green product being pitched, so we are disappointed that this one
may not be as green as presented. We hope the developers can fix it up
so that it meets federal requirements for green product claims. Finally,
everyone else is talking about the impact on environmental groups of Bill
C-51 so we give our take as well. It is tough not to worry.
Our next issue
will be a catch-up of some of the most interesting environment and business
issues from the last few months that we have not yet covered, either in
Gallon Environment Letter or in our relatively new GallonDaily.
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Please note: Except for occasional issues, the Honoured
Reader edition of the Gallon Environment Letter does not contain most
of the links of the paid subscription. However, any urls listed, checked
at the time of publication of each issue, may no longer be current later.
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