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Climate change is posing a serious threat to Canada — and British Columbia in particular, according to CSIS

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 Original article here Significant parts of the province could be lost to rising sea levels, according to spy agency CBC News   ·  Posted: Mar 10, 2023 7:00 AM PST  Canada's spy agency says climate change is threatening the nation's prosperity and security, and has identified British Columbia as a region of particular concern. A newly released analysis by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that was prepared in April 2021 and only recently disclosed to The Canadian Press spells out several concerns presented by global warming. They include looming threats to water and food security, Arctic sovereignty, and coastal security — the latter of which could greatly impact British Columbians. According to the report, rising sea levels could cause "irretrievable loss of infrastructure and even entire communities" with the potential to destroy "significant parts" of the westernmost province. Taking steps to lessen the severity of flood and weather risks

Small firms have a big role fighting climate change

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Original article here Back to the Roots co-founder Nikhil Arora (L) is taking steps to cut the company's carbon footprint By Nathalie Jimenez, Business producer, New York For the past two years, Nikhil Arora has been working hard to cut his organic gardening company's carbon footprint, taking small steps, like shifting away from plastic packaging, to make his business, Back to the Roots, the most environmentally efficient it has ever been. The California-based company is small, employing just 21 people, but it expects to make roughly $100m (£84m) in sales this year. Mr Arora says the moves it has made are critical to the fight against climate change. "Small businesses are the lifeblood of the US economy. We power most of the jobs, most of the growth and, therefore, I think we will also power most of the change," says Mr Arora, co-founder of the company, which started selling organic gardening kits more than a decade ago. Corporate giants such as Amazon and Wal

A Canadian senator aims to end the widespread financial backing of fossil fuels

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  Wet'suwet'en Chief Madeek reacts with his middle finger to protest the Royal Bank of Canada’s funding of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and other fossil fuel investments in Toronto in April 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Bruce Campbell , York University, Canada Original article here The United Nations climate change conference, COP27, has begun in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In the lead-up to the conference, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations. “It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world,” he said. Canada is high on the list of empty pledges. The government’s COP26 commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030 — enacted by the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act — is not only seen as an inad

Why environmentalists went after Canada's biggest bank for alleged greenwashing

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RBC denies allegations and insists it is committed to net zero Jaela Bernstien  · CBC News · Posted: Oct 16, 2022 4:00 AM ET  Original  article here Kukpi7 (Chief) Judy Wilson of the Skat’sin te Secwepemc-Neskonlith Indian Band stands defiantly in front of an RBC branch in downtown Montreal. Wilson is part of a movement to hold banks accountable for funding the fossil fuel sector. (Jaela Bernstien/CBC) Standing in the rain in downtown Montreal, Kukpi7 (Chief) Judy Wilson lifts her fist in defiance outside a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada. Wilson's gesture goes largely unnoticed by the shoppers who hurry past, but her efforts to hold banks accountable on financing fossil fuels have certainly caught the attention of Canadian regulators. Wilson, based in south central British Columbia, is the chief of the Skat'sin te Secwepemc-Neskonlith Indian Band and the secretary-treasurer for the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).  She's also one of six appli

Adapting to climate change faster will save Canada billions, new analysis shows

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  In 2021, severe weather caused $2.1 billion in insured damages Mia Rabson  · The Canadian Press  Original  story here   Remnants of Big Island Road in Nova Scotia after Hurricane Fiona. A new analysis estimates that Canada is already looking at annual disaster recovery bills of $5 billion by 2025 and $17 billion by 2050, regardless of how well Canada and the rest of the world do at cutting emissions. (Lynn Arsenault) Canadians will see lower incomes and a choice between higher taxes or fewer government services if there isn't more effort to adapt to the changing climate, a new report from The Canadian Climate Institute warns. But according to the report released Wednesday, if governments and the private sector buckle up and start investing in making Canada more resilient to the effects of extreme weather, the economic impact of climate change can be cut by 75 per cent. "The good news story is we have some ability to change this future," said Ryan Ness, the d

Climate Change in the Courts

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In our workshop we discuss the risk from cases brought against funds, corporations or governments from various stakeholders for bad action—or lack of action—on climate change, so we find the project called the ClimateChange Litigation Databases , jointly put together by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and Arnold & Porter to be quite interesting.  The two databases track cases in the US and globally that have been brought before judicial bodies where climate change law, policy, or science is a material issue of law or fact in the case. Cases that make only a passing reference to climate change are not included. The Global database also includes several cases brought before arbitral tribunals under the terms of bilateral and multilateral investment agreements. As of 5 August 2022, the databases have a total of 2,086 cases of which 1,477 are in the US and 609 are in the rest of the world. The databases are searchable by jurisdiction, principal law, c

How shareholders are pushing big banks for climate action

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  So far, many financial institutions have avoided decisive measures. But the pressure from activist shareholders isn’t going away. Credit...Patrick Semansky/Associated Press   By  Manuela Andreoni May 10, 2022 Original article here It’s hard to live without banks. But having an account often ties our money to the conveyor belt of global finance — and its effects on the climate. Take Citigroup, which owns Citibank, for example. The market research firm YouGov ranks Citibank  among the most popular banks in the United States . It’s also the world’s second-largest financier of fossil fuels, according to a  recent report by the Rainforest Action Network , an environmental group. Early last year, like many other financial institutions, Citigroup committed to stop adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere and to become carbon neutral by 2050. But when a small group of shareholders introduced a proposal pressing the bank to stop financing new fossil fuel projects this year,