The following, in our opinion, are among the most significant books, media presentations and online resources on the subject of climate change and climate change policy.
Probably the best know advocate for action on climate change is Al Gore who was vice-president of the U.S.A. from 1993 to 2000, and would have been president in 2001 but for a controversial election vote count. Al Gore became interested in the phenomena of global warming thanks in large measure to one of his professors at Harvard, Roger Revelle who together with Hans Seuss wrote a scientific paper in 1957 that saw global warming as a consequence of the burning of fossil fuels.
Al Gore Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit Plume 1992
Davis Guggenheim An Inconvenient Truth (documentary film featuring Al Gore) Paramount 2006
Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It Rodale Press 2006
Al Gore is currently chairman of The Climate Reality Project.
http://climaterealityproject.org/
Many of the wealthiest fossil fuel investors have became increasingly concerned about the threat of climate change discourse on the value of their investments. As people became more aware of the issue, they launched a vigorous attack on the science of climate change, fuelling denial, and doubt through misinformation campaigns, and targeting politicians and climate scientists with vilification and character assassination.
Prominent among fossil fuel investors are the Koch brothers whose father made his oil fortune in the communist Soviet Union.
Greenpeace USA Koch Industries: Secretly funding the Climate Denial Machine
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez Climate Deniers Exposed: Top Scientists Got Funding from ExxonMobil, Koch Brothers, Big Coal Democracy Now! Feb 26, 2015
Jane Mayer “Kochland” Examines the Koch Brothers’ Early, Crucial Role in Climate-Change Denial The New Yorker August 13, 2019
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kochland-examines-how-the-koch-brothers-made-their-fortune-and-the-influence-it-bought
Of all the scientists that have been targeted by the climate change denial lobby, none is arguably more prominent than Dr. Michael Mann. When his “hockey stick” graph showing how suddenly global temperatures have spiked upwards over the last century was featured in a 2001 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report… “all hell broke loose”.
Chris Mooney The Hockey Stick: The Most Controversial Chart in Science, Explained The Atlantic May 10, 2013 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/the-hockey-stick-the-most-controversial-chart-in-science-explained/275753/
Michael E Mann The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars – Dispatches from the Front Lines Columbia University Press – 2012
The following article reveals Mann’s thinking in 2021: “We can not solve this problem without deep systemic change, and that necessitates government action.” By “systemic change”, Mann means reshaping capitalism, primarily with carbon taxes.
Simon Pirani Strategies for the new climate war Review of The New Climate War: the fight to take back our planet, by Michael E. Mann Ecologist April 8, 2021 https://theecologist.org/2021/apr/08/strategies-new-climate-war
Michael E Mann The New Climate War – The Fight to Take Back Our Planet Public Affairs Jan 2021
James Hoggan, a Vancouver based public relations consultant wrote about this, and started a blog site to counter the climate change denial campaign.
James Hoggan Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming Greystone 2009
Desmogblog Clearing the PR Pollution the Clouds Climate Science
http://www.desmogblog.com/
Desmog Canada Clearing the PR Pollution the Clouds the Public Square
http://www.desmog.ca/
Another commentator on the fossil fuel investors’ war on science in Canada is Chris Turner who studied journalism at Ryerson University and ran for the Green Party of Canada in the federal bi-election in Calgary-Centre in 2012.
Chris Turner The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Wilful Blindness in Stephen Harper’s Canada Greystone 2013
The following two part article illustrates well Exxon’s role in climate change denial.
David Kaiser and Lee Wasserman The Rockefeller Family Fund vs. Exxon (Part 1) New York Reveiw Dec 8, 2016
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/the-rockefeller-family-fund-vs-exxon/
David Kaiser and Lee Wasserman The Rockefeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil (Part 2) New York Review Dec 22, 2016
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/22/rockefeller-family-fund-takes-on-exxon-mobil/
One of the climate scientists on the forefront of climate change activism is James Hansen, who was head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies from 1981 to 2013.
James Hansen Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity Bloomsbury USA 2009
James Hansen Why I must speak out about Climate Change TedTalk 2012
http://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change?language=en
Makiko Sato & James Hansen Updating the Climate Science What Path is the Real World Following? Columbia University Earth Institute
http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/
Journalist Bill McKibben became interested in the climate change issue while following the testimony of James Hansen to the U.S. Senate in 1988. Since then he has become a leading climate change activist.
Bill McKibben The End of Nature Random House 1989
Bill McKibben Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – and that make clear who the real enemy is Rolling Stone July 19, 2012
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719
Bill McKibben Do the Math at Rutgers RU-tv Network Feb 4, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D88x7CeC6M
Bill McKibben is also the founder of 350.org, a leading organization in numerous global grassroots based campaigns on climate change action. It is on the forefront of the fossil fuel divestment campaign.
350.org http://350.org/
There is some debate about the most effective way to tackle climate change – regulation or carbon pricing.
Mark Jaccard, a professor at Simon Fraser University, argues that regulations can be almost as effective as carbon pricing, which he views as too politically fraught.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Wg8mrD5WE
Mark Jaccard Devisive carbon prices much ado about nothing Globe & Mail Dec 14, 2018 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-divisive-carbon-prices-are-much-ado-about-nothing/
https://www.cambridge.org/
One visitor to our website used this web page to help with her school science project and suggested this informative link on U.S. regulations in the transportation sector:
Law Shelf Educational Media Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards in the United States https://lawshelf.com/videos/entry/greenhouse-gas-emissions-standards-in-the-united-states
However, it may be prudent to consider that regulations can easily be overturned with the advent of a populist government backed by fossil fuel interests. We have only to look as recent events south of the border to see this:
Nadja Popovich et al. 83 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump New York Times June 7, 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html
Marshall Saunders is a U.S. businessman who after witnessing the poverty in Mexico during a trip to Tijuana in 1991, began to heavily involve himself in micro-finance and village banking. Responding to the threat of climate change in 2007, he founded the Citizens’ Climate Lobby whose focus is on lobbying politicians to put a price on carbon. After a meeting with James Hansen in 2008 he became convinced that ‘Fee and Dividend’ was the best carbon pricing mechanism.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada http://www.citizensclimatelobby.ca/
Shi-Ling Hsu The Case for a Carbon Tax: Getting Past Our Hang-ups to Effective Climate Policy Island Press 2011
Cheryl McNamara The making of a miracle: How the World Bank came out against coal power rabble.ca Aug 2013
http://rabble.ca/news/2013/08/making-miracle-how-world-bank-came-out-against-coal-power
“Research shows that showing people research doesn’t work.” – Prof. John Sterman MIT Sloan. That’s why letting people play with a simulator can make them more attuned to the climate change issue and what policies should be implemented. The MIT En-ROADS simulator shows carbon pricing is by far the most effective policy. A demonstration starts at about 2:30 min into this CCL program from July 2019.
https://vimeo.com/347933014
Built by Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Initiative, En-ROADS should be released later in 2019. You can sign up for the launch here:
https://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/en-roads/en-roads-launch-interest/
Military organizations such as the U.S. Pentagon are paying close attention on how climate change will increasingly destabilize countries around the world, leading to more and more military conflicts and terrorist actions. Gwynne Dyer, a Canadian journalist and military historian has studied this in detail.
Gwynne Dyer Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats Oneworld Publications 2010
Gwynne Dyer Gwynne Dyer on Climate Wars TVOBigIdeas 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE53CYYgWuc
Erika Eichelberger How Environmental Disaster Is Making Boko Haram Violence Worse: Drought, population explosion, and poverty are aggravating conflict in Nigeria. Climate change will likely add fuel to the fire Mother Jones Jun 2014
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/06/nigeria-environment-climate-change-boko-haram/
Jeff Goodell The Pentagon & Climate Change: How Deniers put National Security at Risk Rolling Stone Feb 2015
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-pentagon-climate-change-how-climate-deniers-put-national-security-at-risk-20150212
Mark Fischetti Climate Change Hastened Syria’s Civil War: Human-induced drying in many societies can push tensions over a threshold that provokes violent conflict Scientific American Mar 2015
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hastened-the-syrian-war
South of the border we’ve seen the ugly consequences of populism and demagoguery emerge – the politics of division, suppression of the truth, attacks on the free press, and the demonizing of peoples in foreign countries driven from their homelands and forced to become refugees.
Adam Wernick: Climate change is contributing to the migration of Central American refugees 2018
So even as many governments are increasingly focused on border security, spending billions of dollars building walls and incarcerating migrants, those same political leaders appear to be blind to the contribution of climate change on this desperate situation, creating an ever growing tide of refugee movements. In fact, the politicians stoking these fears are in many cases, the same ones working to subvert efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions – the ultimate cause of so much of this upheaval. For an in depth look at these phenomena we recommend:
Todd Miller: Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security City Lights Publishers Sep 22 2017
Naomi Klein’s parents moved to Montreal in 1967 from the U.S., resisting involvement in the Vietnam war. After rejecting her parents values as a teenager, and becoming engrossed in a consumer-oriented lifestyle, she eventually made an about face and became one of corporate culture’s harshest critics.
Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate Alfred A. Knopf 2014
John Riddell Naomi Klein:‘Only mass social movements can save us’: (a review of This Changes Everything) East End Against Line 9 Oct 22, 2014
http://eastendnotar.org/2014/10/22/naomi-klein-only-mass-social-movements-can-save-us/
Avi Lewis This Changes Everything (Documentary based on Naomi Klein’s book) 2015
Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis on adapting This Changes Everything (CBC Q interview Jan 9, 2015)
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Q/ID/2646874771/
Seth Klein served for 22 years (1996-2018) as the founding British Columbia Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a public policy research institute committed to social, economic and environmental justice. He is also the brother of Naomi Klein.
Seth Klein A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency ECW Press Sept 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.sethklein.ca/book
Tom Rand is a managing partner of ArcTern Ventures and sits on the board of a number of clean energy companies and organizations including Environmental Defense and a part-owner of Planet Traveler, a hostel in Toronto, named North America’s greenest hotel.
Taking a different approach than Naomi Klein, his ‘Case for Climate Capitalism’ is “a call for the Left and Right, the business community and environmentalists, bankers and activists to join together, reclaim capitalism, and force profits to align with the planet.”
https://livestream.com/marsdd/
Tom Rand The Case For Climate Capitalism: Economic Solutions For A Planet In Crises
ECW Press Mar 2020
https://www.tomrand.net/
Jeff Rubin, former Chief Economist and Managing Director of CIBC World Markets, and now turned author, writes about the folly of Canadian government policy in pursuing “energy superpower” status through its Tar Sands development strategy while the world moves ever closer to the inevitable consequences of its carbon capacity limit – sudden job losses and stranded assets that must be decommissioned at tremendous cost to the Canadian taxpayer.
Jeff Rubin The Carbon Bubble : what happens to us when it bursts Random House Canada 2015
Faith groups and religious leaders are also increasingly turning their attention to climate change.
The Dali Lama has long been an advocate for addressing climate change.
The Dali Lama A Green Environment for Now and the Future
http://www.dalailama.com/messages/environment/a-green-environment
Climate Interactive and The Dali Lama Shouting Shouting
http://www.climateinteractive.org/presentation/climate-interactive-and-the-dalai-lama-shouting-shouting/
Pope Francis, spiritual leader of the world’s more than 1.2 billion Catholics, has made clear in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ that the elimination of the use of fossil fuels has become an urgent moral imperative.
Catholic Climate Covenant http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/
Islamic scholars from 20 countries issued an Islamic Declaration on Climate Change at the International Climate Change Symposium held in Istanbul August 17-18, 2015. It urges the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims to embrace climate change action, including eliminating dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and committing to renewable energy sources, as part of their religious duty.
http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-global-climate-change/
For an extensive list of climate change statements and positions by various religious groups, see:
The forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale Climate Change Statements from World Religions
http://fore.research.yale.edu/climate-change/statements-from-world-religions/
Katherine Hayhoe studied astrophysics at the University of Toronto, but then became interested in Climate Science, and is now the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. She is a superb communicator, and argues very effectively on the need for climate action from an evangelical Christian point of view.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/01/08/katharine-hayhoe-amanpour-climate-change.cnn
http://katharinehayhoe.com/wp2016/
Over the past decades, we have been absorbing increasingly dystopian and apocalyptic visions of what our future holds in the way of climate disasters. David Wallace-Wells’ essay and subsequent book “The Uninhabitable Earth” paints a frighteningly bleak picture of what our planet is in for if immediate action is not taken to remedy our addiction to fossil fuels.
David Wallace-Wells The Uninhabitable Earth: Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think. New York Magazine July 2017
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html
David Wallace-Wells The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming Tim Duggan Books 2019
According to an American Psychological Association task force, “People believe their actions would be too small to make a difference and choose to do nothing.” When climate activist Bill McKibben was asked “how he was able to keep from falling into depression, given how much time he devotes to thinking about climate change, he answered that fighting is the key—it’s only despairing if you think that you can’t take on the problem.”
Rachel Riederer The Other Kind of Climate Denialism The New Yorker March 6, 2019
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-other-kind-of-climate-denialism
From the 1990s into late 2000s, the Green parties of Europe and the international alliance of Green parties called the Global Greens developed the Green New Deal agenda. It was an attempt to create a policy that would address both the need for urgent action on climate change as well as a way to deal with the economic inequality in society in the process of transition. A Green New Deal Group which included British Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas published a report in 2008 calling for a ‘Green New Deal’ in response to the ‘triple crunch’ of the 2007/8 global financial meltdown, accelerating climate change and volatile energy prices.
http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/?page_id=35
The policy was subsequently taken up by the Green Party of the United States. During his run for governor of New York state in 2010, Green Party candidate Howard Hawkins ran on this plan to fight climate change “with the same urgency, speed, and commitment of resources that our country demonstrated in converting to war production for the mobilization for World War II.” It included a proposal for “a robust carbon tax as a far more effective strategy than the present carbon cap and trade programs that provide enormous profits for Wall Street traders but have had only minimal impact on reducing carbon emission.”
https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
Since then an independently derived version of the policy has been popularized by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the U.S. Democratic Party. She along with fellow Democrat Senator Ed Markey introduced a Green New Deal resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 7, 2019 that was later voted down by the U.S. Senate.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jxUzp9SZ6-VB-4wSm8sselVMsqWZrSrYpYC9slHKLzo/edit
Zoya Teirstein How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is being built: Is it possible to come up with a solution to the climate crisis, the economic crisis, and the global crisis, all at the same time? New Consensus aims to find out. Grist Mar 12, 2019
https://grist.org/article/how-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-is-being-built/
David Roberts The Green New Deal, explained: An insurgent movement is pushing Democrats to back an ambitious climate change solution. Vox March 30, 2019
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez
Unlike Ocasio-Cortez’s version, the U.S. Green Party Green New Deal emphasizes a transformational shift in our economic structure towards localized grassroots democratic control of the transition to a decarbonized economy that halts the ravages of runaway climate change.
David Cobb Where are the Greens in the Green New Deal? The Progressive March 23, 2019
https://progressive.org/dispatches/where-are-the-greens-in-the-green-new-deal-cobb-190323/
This article reviewed by Canadian Energy expert Vaclav Smil provides a sobering reality check on the goals of the Green New Deal and the scope of adjustments that would be needed:
Michael Cembalet Mountains and Molehills: Achievements and Distractions on the Road to Decarbonization JP Morgan March 2019
http://vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/JPM.2019.pdf
On January 18, 2019 the Wall Street Journal published the ‘Largest Public Statement of Economists in History’ called the “ECONOMISTS’ STATEMENT ON CARBON DIVIDENDS“. Over 3500 U.S. economists including 27 Nobel Laureates are among the signatories. It demonstrates a clear consensus among the vast majority of economists that Carbon pricing is the most effective way to harness our economic resources to deal with the Climate crisis. And coupled with Carbon dividends – returning in equal proportion the fees collected directly to citizens, it is the most politically viable.
https://www.clcouncil.org/economists-statement/
The following article looks at the how these two competing visions intersect:
Marianne Lavelle Green New Deal vs. Carbon Tax: A Clash of 2 Worldviews, Both Seeking Climate Action Inside Climate News March 4, 2019
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04032019/green-new-deal-carbon-tax-compromise-climate-policy-congress-ocasio-cortez-sunrise-ccl-economists
In Canada, the province of British Columbia became the first North American jurisdiction to implement a Carbon Tax as of July 1, 2008.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/planning-and-action/carbon-tax
Studies of the B.C. carbon tax have concluded, pollution was 5% to 15% lower than it would be otherwise, people drove less, invested in more fuel-efficient cars and used less natural gas at home. At the same time they found that the carbon tax had no significant impact on B.C.’s economic activities and may even be responsible for a net increase in jobs.
Craig Axford Why BC’s Carbon Tax Worked: Two shrewd components prevented a ‘Yellow Vest’ backlash here The Tyee 11 Jan 2019
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/01/11/BC-Carbon-Tax-Success-Explained/
Joanna Kyriazis How do you know when a carbon price works? Clean Energy Canada March 12, 2019
http://cleanenergycanada.org/how-do-you-know-when-a-carbon-price-works/
Canada’s federal carbon pricing plan “The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act” was implemented in Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba on April 1, 2019. For Nunavut and Yukon, it began on July 1, 2019.
Government of Canada Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change: Canada’s Plan to Address Climate Change and Grow the Economy 2016
http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/eccc/En4-294-2016-eng.pdf
Environment and Climate Change Canada Technical Paper on the Federal Carbon Pricing Backstop 2017
https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/20170518-2-en.pdf
Canada Revenue Agency Carbon pollution pricing – what you need to know
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/pollution-pricing.html
Contrary to the picture created by the Ontario government’s misleading radio, TV and sticker ads of 2019, the average family comes out ahead with the federal plan – i.e. federal carbon rebates exceed federal carbon fee costs. Furthermore, the lowest income earners benefit the most. For an analysis showing the progressive nature of the Carbon pricing framework see:
Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer Fiscal and Distributional Analysis of the Federal Carbon Pricing System 25 April 2019
Rachel Chen Everything You Need To Know About A Carbon Tax—And How It Would Work In Canada Chatelaine May 14, 2019
https://www.chatelaine.com/living/politics/federal-carbon
To prevent Carbon leakage – the situation that may occur where industries in order to avoid carbon fees would shift their production to other countries without carbon fees or with laxer regulations, or where imports from those lax countries undercut domestic industries, the government has implemented Output Based Pricing for specific sectors threatened by such trade related issues. ( An alternative to Output Based Pricing is a Border Carbon Adjustment system as called for in the “Economists Statement on Carbon Dividends” – see above )
Jason Dion Explaining Output-Based Allocations (OBAs) Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission May 24, 2017 https://ecofiscal.ca/2017/05/24/explaining-output-based-allocations-obas/
Criticism of the way the Output Based Pricing system has been implemented in can be found in the following two articles.
Jimmy Thomson What the Trudeau government’s scaling back of the carbon tax means The Narwhal Aug 17, 2018
https://thenarwhal.ca/what-the-trudeau-governments-scaling-back-of-the-carbon-tax-means/
Blake Shaffer Canada’s new large-emitter pricing system might defeat the carbon tax’s own purpose Macleans Nov 5, 2018
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/canadas-new-large-emitter-pricing-system-defeats-the-carbon-taxs-own-purpose/
As mentioned previously, Border Carbon Adjustments (a.k.a. Carbon Tariffs) are another possible solution to the problem of Carbon Leakage.
Adair Turner The Case for Carbon Tariffs Project Syndicate May 30, 2019
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/case-for-carbon-tariffs-border-adjustment-mechanism-by-adair-turner-2019-05
As of May 30, 2019 the newly elected Alberta government discontinued their existing carbon tax, and resorted to a limited version on large emitters only. It will also reduce the tax from $30 a tonne to $20 a tonne, and the revenue raised will be used to subsidize large emitters – “larger subsidies for dirtier facilities and smaller subsidies for cleaner ones”.
Trevor Tombe No, Alberta didn’t scrap its carbon tax [completely] Globe and Mail May 28, 2019
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-jason-kenney-is-not-really-the-carbon-tax-killer-he-claims-to-be/
One week after the Alberta provincial carbon tax was repealed, the federal government announced they will impose the federal carbon pricing plan on Alberta, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Of course, its implementation will be dependent on the results of the federal election in October 2019. However, there still remains a large disparity in the way carbon is priced across the country – a justified point of contention. For example, Quebec still has a cap and trade system with California which is limited to large emitters and which prices carbon at about $20 a tonne while the charge on carbon in provinces under the federal plan will go up to $50 a tonne by 2022. This sentiment can be found in the following (somewhat anti-Green biased) opinion piece.
Danielle Smith Alberta Big Emitters Carbon Tax Should Be Enough to Satisfy Ottawa Edmonton Journal May 31, 2019
https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/danielle-smith-alberta-big-emitters-carbon-tax-should-be-enough-to-satisfy-ottawa
Ironically, as Alberta’s premier was making his ‘scraping the carbon tax’ announcement, a thick blanket of haze was engulfing the city of Edmonton caused by another early start to forest-fire season in that province. It brings to mind the catastrophic wild-fire of 2016 around Fort McMurray, the centre of North America’s Tar Sands production, which “sent 88,000 people fleeing their homes, offices, hospitals, schools and seniors’ residences…The total cost of the fire, including financial, physical, and social factors, is likely to be 8.86 billion.”
Edward Struzik Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future Island Press Oct 5 2017
A similar conflagration known as the ‘Camp Fire’ occurred in November of 2018, turning Paradise California into a hellish nightmare killing 85 people and destroying 10,360 residences.
Umair Irfan The Paradise fire is catastrophic. And the wildfire threat to California is only growing. Vox Nov 19, 2018
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/16/18096245/paradise-california-wildfire
Liabilities related to California wildfires can be blamed for the bankruptcy filing of its largest utility – Pacific Gas and Electricity in January 2019. The utility has confirmed that its equipment had probably caused the ‘Camp Fire’ blaze.
Sheelah Kolhatkar The P.G. & E. Bankruptcy and the Coming Climate-Related Business Failures The New Yorker February 26, 2019
https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-pg-and-e-bankruptcy-and-the-coming-climate-related-business-failures
The world’s largest reinsurance firm, Munich Reinsurance, has blamed global warming for $24bn of losses in the Californian wildfires. According to their chief climatologist “If the risk from wildfires, flooding, storms or hail is increasing then the only sustainable option we have is to adjust our risk prices accordingly … some people on low and average incomes in some regions will no longer be able to buy insurance.”
Arthur Neslen Climate change could make insurance too expensive for most people – report The Guardian 21 March 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/21/climate-change-could-make-insurance-too-expensive-for-ordinary-people-report
An “Open letter on climate-related financial risks” was published on 17 April 2019. It was written by Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, with Banque de France governor François Velleroy de Falhau and Frank Elderson, chair of the Network for Greening the Financial Services (NGFS). “The prime responsibility for climate policy will continue to sit with governments. And the private sector will determine the success of the adjustment. But as financial policymakers and prudential supervisors, we cannot ignore the obvious risks before our eyes.”
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2019/april/open-letter-on-climate-related-financial-risks
Crawford Kilian Mark Carney Says Climate Change Will Bring Economic Disaster. Will the Powerful Listen? Global bank heads say urgent action needed to prevent a ‘Minsky moment’ collapse in asset prices. TheTyee 23 Apr 2019
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/04/23/Mark-Carney-Climate-Change-Economic-Disaster-Minsky-Moment/
“Two recent developments demonstrate that climate change litigation has arrived in Canada: the ENVironnement JEUnesse lawsuit in Québec and the City of Victoria’s endorsement of a class action lawsuit against oil and gas producers for climate-related harms… Oil and gas producers may soon be faced with climate litigation.” (quoted from the Osler web-page below)
Maureen Killoran, Colin Feasby, Matthew M. Huys Climate change litigation arrives in Canada Osler Feb 5, 2019
https://www.osler.com/en/resources/regulations/2019/climate-change-litigation-arrives-in-canada
Greg Meckbach The liability risk from climate change Canadian Underwriter April 9, 2019
https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/risk/the-liability-risk-from-climate-change-1004161756/
Deanna Moran and Elena Mihaly Legal Liability Could Catalyze Action on Climate Change Meeting of the Minds Apr 4, 2019
https://meetingoftheminds.org/legal-liability-could-catalyze-action-on-climate-change-30160
The theory behind a carbon pricing structure like fee and dividend, is that a steadily rising price on carbon will spur investment in green technology, and that this is simply the least costly way to do so. Unfortunately, many political players are seeking to undermine efforts to move in this direction by distorting this salient fact which is backed by the vast majority of economists, by ignoring the rebate/dividend program that keeps most households ahead, and by offering ineffective alternatives.
Jesse Snyder Costs of Ontario climate plan would be double Liberal carbon tax, raise household costs: report A growing pile of research argues economy-wide carbon taxes are cheaper to administer than regulations targeting specific sources of emissions National Post June 4, 2019
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/costs-of-ontario-climate-plan-would-be-double-liberal-carbon-tax-raise-household-costs-report
Dave Sawyer and Seton Stiebert in partnership with Canadians for Clean Prosperity
The Cost Implications of Ontario’s Environment Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
EnviroEconomics June 4, 2019
https://www.enviroeconomics.org/single-post/2019/06/04/The-Cost-Implications-of-Ontario%E2%80%99s-Environment-Plan-to-Reduce-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions
On Jun 13, 2019 the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) reported that the carbon price needs to be broadened in scope, and needs to continue rising after 2022 to $102/tonne by 2030 to meet the Paris target.
John Paul Tasker Ottawa needs to boost carbon tax by $50 a tonne to meet emissions reduction targets: budget officer CBC News Jun 13, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carbon-tax-50-tonne-emissions-1.5173609
Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer Closing the Gap: Carbon pricing for the Paris target June 13, 2019
https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/web/default/files/Documents/Reports/2019/Paris_Target/Paris_Target_EN.pdf
Nevertheless, in spite of the findings of the report, and on the same day it was released, Catherine McKenna, the Liberal Party Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced their intention to freeze the carbon price at $50/tonne after 2022.
Jolson Lim Feds rule out increasing carbon tax after 2022 despite PBO report ipolitics June 13, 2019
https://ipolitics.ca/2019/06/13/feds-rule-out-increasing-carbon-tax-after-2022-despite-pbo-report/
Commentary pointing out the apparent contradictions of this Liberal Party policy was as follows:
Lorrie Goldstein McKenna’s ludicrous promise on carbon pricing Toronto Sun June 15, 2019
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-mckennas-ludicrous-promise-on-carbon-pricing
Andrew Coyne Liberals are either backing away from their emissions target, or backing away from carbon tax Postmedia News Jun 15, 2019
https://www.journalpioneer.com/opinion/columnists/andrew-coyne-liberals-are-either-backing-away-from-their-emissions-target-or-backing-away-from-carbon-tax-322749/
Aaron Wherry Here’s what everyone seems to be missing in the PBO’s climate policy math CBC News Jun 15, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/parliamentary-budget-officer-climate-carbon-tax-1.5175774
And continuing on the theme of Liberal Party contradictions on climate policy: one day after the Parliament of Canada declared a climate emergency, the Liberal Government approved the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion.
Warren Mabee Cognitive Dissonance: Canada Declares a National Climate Emergency and Approves a Pipeline The Conversation June 20, 2019
https://theconversation.com/cognitive-dissonance-canada-declares-a-national-climate-emergency-and-approves-a-pipeline-119151
Brian Kahn Canada’s Climate Emergency Declaration Is Just Empty Words Earther June 19, 2019
https://earther.gizmodo.com/canadas-climate-emergency-declaration-is-just-empty-wor-1835630454
Green Party of Canada Breathtaking cynicism and hypocrisy in pipeline decision, says Elizabeth May June 19, 2019
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/media-release/2019-06-19/breathtaking-cynicism-and-hypocrisy-pipeline-decision-says-elizabeth-may
CPAC Trans Mountain: Elizabeth May and David Suzuki Raise Concerns
http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/headline-politics/episodes/66003885
The NDP climate action plan was released on May 31, 2019.
Alex Ballingall NDP’s $15-billion climate plan greeted with mixed reviews Toronto Star Jun 01, 2019
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9403486-ndp-s-15-billion-climate-plan-greeted-with-mixed-reviews/
Campbell Clark NDP climate policy is serious but not radical Globe & Mail June 2, 2019
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ndp-climate-policy-is-serious-but-not-radical/
Aaron Wherry With Singh’s environment plan, the left-centre climate change bidding war begins
CBC News Jun 01, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-climate-change-green-party-1.5157591
The NDP’s sincerity on Climate Action may be called into question by the pro-pipeline policies of its provincial counterparts in Alberta and pro-LNG policies of the British Columbia NDP.
Alex Ballingall Federal NDP needs to ‘think about working people,’ Alberta leader says The Star June 20, 2019 “The former Alberta premier made it clear that the rift between her wing of the NDP and the federal party led by Jagmeet Singh is as deep as ever. She said Singh is wrong to oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion…”
Andrew Weaver Statement on LNG Canada Final Investment Decision October 2, 2018
“I am deeply disappointed that the NDP minority government’s tax giveaway [to the LNG consortium] has resulted in the country’s single biggest source of emissions receiving an FID [final investment decision]”
https://www.andrewweavermla.ca/category/energy-mines/lng/page/3/
Carol Linnitt 6 awkward realities behind B.C.’s big LNG giveaway The Narwhal Apr 6, 20196
https://thenarwhal.ca/6-awkward-realities-behind-b-c-s-big-lng-giveaway/
Credible analysts have roundly panned the so-called Conservative Party Climate Plan released on June 19, 2019.
Gary Mason: The Conservative climate plan is a sad joke Globe and Mail June 25, 2019
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-conservative-climate-plan-is-a-sad-joke/
Thomas Walkom Andrew Scheer fails to deliver a realistic climate-change plan Toronto Star June 20, 2019
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/06/20/scheer-fails-to-deliver-realistic-climate-change-plan.html
Andrew Coyne Conservative climate change ‘plan’ is really more of a prop National Post June 21, 2019
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-conservative-climate-change-plan-is-really-more-of-a-prop
The Conservative plan would result in missing the Paris target for 2030 by 109 Mt while at the same time increasing costs for Canadians by between $187 to $295 per household by 2022 according to an analysis sponsored by Clean Prosperity.
Aaron Wherry Conservatives’ climate plan would do less, cost more, study argues CBC News Jul 10, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-climate-change-carbon-tax-1.5207158
Dave Sawyer, Seton Stiebert and Michael Bernstein An Emission and Cost Assessment of “A Real Plan to Protect Our Environment” Clean Prosperity July 10, 2019
https://www.cleanprosperity.ca/2019/07/10/conservative-climate-plan/
For the Green Party of Canada’s climate change platform see:
Green Party of Canada Mission Possible: The Green Climate Action Plan 2019
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/mission-possible
Green Party unveils Mission: Possible, the party’s bold 20-point Climate Action Plan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyuJf2Qkn5A
Green Party of Canada Addressing the Climate Crisis: Enhancing Economic Performance while Safeguarding our Future Vision Green 2015
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/vision-green/climate
It has become increasingly obvious that the 2015 Paris Agreement targets are not being met by the nations of the world. Furthermore, the individual targets do not add up to what’s needed to keep global temperatures from surpassing 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Most countries, including Canada, are not even on track to meet the weak targets they committed to. (Stephen Harper’s Conservative target in Canada’s case, which was left unaltered by the Justin Trudeau Liberal government.) So the Paris framework seems doomed to failure, setting the stage for disastrous global climate breakdown. The following book, with contributions by 13 notable economists gives us an alternative approach to international climate negotiations based on cooperative game theory.
Richard N. Cooper et al. Global Carbon Pricing: The Path to Climate Cooperation MIT Press 2017
It can be downloaded for free here:
https://carbon-price.com/