Obama, the BP spill, and carbon prices

The man who pushed through the biggest healthcare reform in American history may be on the verge of pushing through the biggest shift in environmental policy ever.

Word from American political pundits is that Obama’s address to the nation on Tuesday night was all about setting the stage for passing carbon cap and trade legislation. Hard to believe that a speech about an oil spill, a corporate criminal and protecting the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico could signal his intention to push through carbon legislation. I know I watched the Presidential oration live on the tube and naively thought it was about holding British Petroleum to account and throwing government resources at protection of coasts and habitat.

But the folks who sift through the presidential tea leaves of words and meaning have pronounced this the beginning of Obama’s cap and trade assault. After the address, I watched pundits on American network television debate the merits of an unusually weak address from this president. The common thinking seemed to be that he is softening the ground to plant his feet in on cap and trade, a price on carbon, and an aggressive stance on renewables. Following the pattern of health care reform strategy, they see this as his latest legacy crusade: a strong renewable energy policy grounded in an economic context that puts a price on carbon. That would be a legacy I can believe in.

For an excellent article on American carbon policy, check out Carbon Finance’s latest analysis.

Canadian Annual Climate Change Report escapes scrutiny

The numbers are abysmal. The plan has been weakened. But if a tree falls in the forest does anyone notice. JJ7VET33QQQC

The Federal government sneaked one past us as they quietly posted their annual climate change plan (A Climate Change Plan for the Purposes of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, May 2010) onto the Environment Canada website last week. You’d be forgiven for missing it, because you’d have to be searching in a remote part of their publications section to find it.

When you consider how important climate change policy is to public safety and to the economy; and when you consider how important carbon accounting is in the global economy and in our international treaty obligations, you have to wonder how the government can get away with burying such a significant annual report.

The report is required by law and comprises part of Canada’s treaty obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. There is no question why the government would want to shuffle this document into the back of the filing cabinet. The report baldly projects that Canada’s emissions will continue to rise through to 2012. The number-crunchers have also scaled back any projected emission reductions from government policy over last year’s report by a factor of ten. (See Matthew Bramley’s excellent analysis of the report on his Pembina Institute blog.)

Beyond just the bad news statistics, the plan demonstrates a gaping lack of strategy, action, or policy for addressing dangerous climate change.

If this same Government were to perform so badly in its financial reporting, in meeting its financial targets, or was this incredibly incompetent at managing financial affairs, the mewling and crying from the media would be heard from St John’s to Whitehorse. When it comes to mismanaging an issue as crucial as climate change, there was barely a whimper. I am not surprised by the silence, but I am puzzled.

Unless Canadians hold their politicians accountable, the government has no incentive to improve its performance on climate change or change its pathetic policies. Action to address climate change is the foundation of global economic growth throughout most of the rest of the world. The very future of our species could hang in the balance, as well.

If the performance of our government on this issue barely warrants a back page comment in the Globe and Mail and if Canadians let them get away with ignoring climate change, this country deserves the ugly wake-up call we will receive from the global economy when they pass us by, or worse, the slap up-side the head from planet earth when the effects of dangerous climate change come home to roost.

Download the document at the Environment Canada Publications link. Be warned, they want your email address before you can access it.

GHG Accounting, Certifications, Standards, and Protocols: Who Cares?

With most things humans build, the foundation matters. As we are fond of saying, the devil is in the details.

It is satisfying to debate grand themes of ideology, history, and philosophy. Hey, I am as guilty of that fascination as anybody. The big news stories of the day are about celebrity, high level conflict, and scandal. However much as we like to focus on top-down battles, or the surface of issues, what often matters most is the tinkering behind the scenes, the way things are constructed. Tweak a few words in a legislation and you make loopholes. Skip a regulation here or there and you construct unsafe buildings. Details, foundations, and regulations matter.

In today’s marketplace, ‘green’ is the prevailing buzzword. Retailers throw around words like sustainable, environmentally-friendly, eco-this and eco-that. But what are these terms based on? Who holds anyone to account for actually meeting a certain standard? What is even the criteria of an environmentally-friendly standard?

Enter the CSA (Canadian Standards Association) and ISO (International Standards Association). They have been developing criteria for safety and industrial performance standards for more than 100 years. It is reassuring to have them jump into the gaping chasm of carbon impact standards and begin a ghg measurement program.

We need standardized protocols and universal benchmarks in this new field of greenhouse gas tracking, so that consumers make informed choices about the claims they see on the packages of the products they buy. By engaging certified professionals and using recognized international standards and protocols, businesses give consumers assurance that their environmental claims are real.

GHG accounting certifications, standards, and protocols are the basis of any real carbon impact claims and the foundation of change. We all should care. Details can make all the difference in the world.

I must confess that this topic is near and dear to my heart. I was fortunate enough to be a part of CSA’s first graduating class of GHG Inventory Quantifiers, a designation that allows me to work with businesses and organizations to properly evaluate and report their carbon inventories and carbon footprint.

You can read the full news release at http://tiny.cc/1pxsm

Free iphone app for UNFCCC Policy Geeks

Climate policy geeks can stay up to the minute on post-Kyoto negotiations with a free iphone application that tracks all UNFCCC meetings and conferences.

Download "Negotiator" to see latest youtube videos, read conference document such as agendas and briefing materials, get logistical information, and linkup via Facebook and Twitter. The application will be updated in advance of every UNFCCC meeting this year.

Climate Change Accountability Act facing down final hurdle

Bill C311. The number is burned into my brain now. For over one year, I’ve watched its unlikely journey as an NDP private members bill to its passage in second reading in the House of Commons in early May. Environmentalists and interested Canadians cheered its passage through the lower House as a triumph in the fight against dangerous climate change. However, the Bill now faces its final and perhaps biggest hurdle in getting through the Senate process as it faces 2nd reading in the upper house today.

The Bill is the only piece of Canadian legislation that addresses dangerous climate change and purports to hold the government accountable through strict reporting mechanisms and aggressive reduction targets.

The highlights of Bill C-311’s outcomes include:
* Cuts greenhouse gas emissions – 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050
* Mandates the government to set regulations that ensure targets are met
* Punishes polluters who break regulations
* Ensures government accountability with publicized 5 year target plans
* Establishes independent reviews to ensure government measures reach targets

The Bill has just two weeks to make it through Senate or die on the order papers. You can follow its progress at http://tiny.cc/5sqmf or communicate with Senators at http://tiny.cc/umz0c.