Corporate Knights Spring 2022

There’s more to carbon pricing [Re: “Canada’s biggest emitters are paying the lowest carbon tax rate,” winter issue 2022] I’d like to thank Corporate Knights for providing a public forum to examine issues surrounding pollution pricing in Canada. For too long, Canada delayed pollution pricing across the economy using the rationale that it would put us at a competitive disadvantage to our trading partners. This effectively gave a veto on climate action to the slowest movers. No more. Since 2019, the Government of Canada has implemented a price on pollution that entrenches the “polluter pays” principle while ensuring that industry does not relocate to jurisdictions with weaker environmental regulations. The average price per tonne of emissions, which headlines your assessment, misses the point of the exercise. Under the federal Output-Based…

In the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Secretary-General, the heads of the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency, and many heads of state, including the current president of the United States, all said that we needed to build back better. But we didn’t. Instead, pandemic-recovery stimulus packages totalling US$17.2 trillion provided more support for dirty industries than green ones in 15 of the G20 countries, including the world’s three largest economies – China, India and the United States, according to the Greenness of Stimulus Index calculated by consultancy Vivid Economics. Not surprisingly, after energy-related global greenhouse gas emissions plunged in 2020 when much of the world hunkered down inside their homes, they surged back to record levels in 2021, with Chinese coal burning the biggest…

Every war is a waste, a mindless extinction of lives, infrastructure and nature. But the sheer folly of the Russian invasion of Ukraine appears even more tragic when framed against the dawning energy transition, and the growing realization that every wasted carbon atom, every broken building, accelerates global warming. Ironically, energy issues contributed to Putin’s war – and a renewable energy revolution could shrink the coffers of one of the world’s most belligerent agitators. After all, petrodollars financed Russia’s invasion. In 2021, Russia’s oil and gas revenues equaled 36% of its total budget. And rising oil prices further enrich Putin’s coffers. On February 23, the first day of the invasion, with oil prices soaring, Russia earned US$1.5 billion in oil and gas exports – an increase of almost US$400 million…

A growing number of American cities are giving a cold shoulder to the natural gas that heats homes. In 2019, Berkeley became the first city in the United States to ban new developments from creating gas hookups – the infrastructure needed to connect buildings to the gas network. Since then, more than 50 municipalities in California and other states have followed Berkeley’s lead. New York City has become the latest jurisdiction to approve such a ban, which will come into effect at the end of 2023 for buildings under seven storeys and in 2027 for larger ones. Some of the country’s most populous cities have taken this step to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, as buildings were responsible for 13% of the United States’ total emissions in 2019, much of…

Hundreds of corporations are proclaiming their climate commitments with four little words: net-zero by 2050. But are they taking their vows seriously? A new Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor report examined 25 global giants – from Amazon to Volkswagen – that have publicly made net-zero or carbon-neutral commitments. According to lead author Thomas Day, there are no standards governing these goals or how they are achieved, so the researchers were looking for best practices to share. Instead, Day says, “We were frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims.” In sum, the researchers found the companies’ sustainability pledges lazy, suspect or outright misleading. Moreover, they reported, “many company pledges are undermined by contentious plans to reduce emissions elsewhere, hidden critical information and accounting tricks.” The study found…

For years, the United Kingdom has been the world leader in harnessing offshore wind power. Burly wind turbines poking out of the Thames estuary, the North Sea and the Irish Sea now produce more than 10 gigawatts of power – enough to meet 10% of Britain’s electricity needs. And there’s more to come. In March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to triple the nation’s offshore wind-generating power to 40 gigawatts by 2030, with plans for 100 gigawatts by 2050. But Johnson is losing his early lead. Spurred by growing electricity demand and the need to reduce its lethal pollution levels, the People’s Republic last year installed 17 gigawatts of new offshore wind power – more capacity than the whole world had produced in the previous five years. This expansion lifts…