Fleet of electric vehicles in Tianjin. China’s EV industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and it currently represents the world’s largest market (1.06 million electric cars sold in 2019). Photo courtesy of Cenitt. On November 19, the Trudeau government tabled the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act in the House
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Canadian Dimension: Canada’s new plastics strategy falls far short of expectations
The Canadian government has vowed to ban single-use plastics by end of 2021, but its plan doesn’t go nearly far enough. Photo by Tom Page/Flickr. In Canada, only nine percent of plastics are presently recycled, while 12 percent are incinerated. The other 79 percent go to landfills. Of the plastic
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why coal can’t make America great again
Donald Trump gets fired up about coal in West Virginia Among the ways Donald Trump vows to “make America great again” is reviving the US coal industry. That’s a stretch considering the plight coal faces today in the US. The combined value of the top four US coal companies fell from
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: As Big Oil tanks, why is Canada so slow to adapt?
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr) The business model of Big Oil has already started to collapse. The model is premised on strong growth to fuel high prices and render economically viable the exploitation of expensive-to-develop, non-conventional fossil fuels, including the tar sands and shale
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Note to Justin: Pipelines don’t help transition to green economy
Photo: Canada2020 / Flickr When Justin Trudeau talks of oil pipeline projects as part of an energy transition, what exactly is he talking about? That we will be on the path to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels by increasing our oil dependency in the short term? And that by
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Despite Trump & Trudeau’s pipeline fetish, green economy will keep booming
US President-Elect Trump (Flickr/Gage Skidmore) and Canadian PM Trudeau (Flickr/Canada 2020) are both big on pipelines Forces at play suggest there will continue to be significant advancements in the global migration to a green economy. Trudeau and Trump are rowing against the current. Despite Trudeau’s continued focus on tar sands extraction
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Electric Vehicles are set to take off…so why is Trudeau still pushing pipelines?
Tesla Model 3 at March 2016 unveiling (Steve Jurvetson/Flickr) In my previous March 2016 article “Pipelines to Nowhere“, I made the point that the proposed Canadian pipelines are about increasing the international supply of petroleum when all the signs are that demand fossil fuels are levelling off over the longer
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Trudeau abandons green election promises, lacks real climate plan
Many of the Justin Trudeau’s green election promises are quickly falling by the wayside, with pipelines moving forward, unsolved regulatory problems, cuts to clean tech funding, and a lack of vision for addressing climate change and building a green economy.
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Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Pipelines to Nowhere: Energy East, Kinder Morgan make no sense amid global green energy boom, tanking oil market
With the longterm decline of fossil fuel markets, Canada should abandon old-economy pipeline projects like Energy East and Kinder Morgan and focus on the booming green economy, argues Will Dubitsky.
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Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada should put the brakes on misleading, ineffective fuel economy standards
Photo: Flickr/Scott Molineaux CC licence For the last several decades, the fuel consumption requirements imposed on vehicle manufacturers in Canada were the same as those applied in the US. The premise of the Conservatives and Liberals alike has always been that Canada has no choice but to emulate the US,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Exxon disses paltry clean tech subsidies while oil industry takes Trillions from taxpayers
Digital composite by AZRainman (Flickr CC licence) A recent article quoting executives from Exxon is an incredible example of the misinformation, half-truths and contempt for solutions to climate change that we continue to see from the oil and gas industry. In response to a question about subsidies for renewables, Theodore Pirog
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: How Alberta NDP can get r done with green energy…seriously
Alberta Prermier Rachel Notley (Alberta NDP/facebook) In her speech on election night, Rachel Notley spoke of her ambition to diversify the economy of Alberta – including the energy sector – and partner with the energy industry and federal government for a national strategy on the environment. Is all this possible? The answer is
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: China’s emissions drop, global cleanteach boom are cause for optimism on climate change
Chinese solar company Suntech at the Bird’s Nest stadium Despite Canada’s total lack of leadership in the green economy, a number of key global developments are grounds for optimism heading into the Paris UN conference on climate change. Global emissions plateau in 2014 In a pleasant surprise for the planet at large, according
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fossil fuel era drawing to a close…except in Canada
Adrian Wyld/CP The following is the sequel to an earlier story by Will Dubitsky on the growing green economy and Canada’s failure to take advantage of it. In the first part of this story, I discussed how Canadian and Quebec leaders are largely ignoring the potential of high job creation, high
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada, Quebec’s political leaders blind to clean tech revolution
Part 1 of a 2-part story from innovation expert Will Dubitsky on Canada’s missed opportunity to build a prosperous green economy. The ardent defenders of our resource economy are in no way limited to the climate skeptics who support TransCanada’s Energy East project, the Keystone XL pipeline and the tripling of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline capacity to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Justin Trudeau continues Liberal greenwash legacy: Ex-govt insider
Justin Trudeau argues for Keystone XL at a think tank in Washington, DC (Photo: Chip Somodevllla/Getty) The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) has a history of big talk on the environment, but, once in power, failing to deliver. Each climate change action plan has demonstrated this trend, accompanied by boastful press releases on how much
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: China’s war on coal means lots more renewable energy…and fracking
Shale gas is a big component of China’s future energy plans China has declared war on coal and coal consumption is down as a result. But this coal war offers some good news, some not so good news for Canada, and some bad news, all at the same time. China turns
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nearly 100% of US car sales could be electric in 15 yrs – the challenge is powering them with clean electricity
An electric smart car in Amsterdam – from the popular car sharing service, Car2go (Wikimedia Commons) There are those who suggest that a migration to a green economy is too expensive, that we must convert to natural gas as a transition fuel, that the subsidies for clean technologies are driving
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: New Quebec government choosing fossil fuels over green jobs
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is putting green jobs on the back burner (Photo: facebook) One thing Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, BC Premier Christy Clark and new Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard all share in common is the dated notion that economic and sustainable development are competing concepts that need to be reconciled,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Green jobs see huge growth globally: Why is Canada missing out?
There are those like Stephen Harper who repeatedly say we must choose between economic development and sustainable development. And there are those who, concerned about the environment and the latest reports from the International Panel on Climate Change, suggest that economic development and sustainable development should be reconciled. Countries such
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