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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
By the end of this week, COP29 will come to a close.
While the climate change summit wraps up in Azerbaijan, discussions surrounding climate finance continue at the G20 summit in Brazil – and those countries are the ones holding the purse strings. It could be argued that they should pay more for environmental initiatives, since it was revealed that they’re home to some of the world’s most polluting cities. But just how much should they pony up? That answer is not clear. (Including, how much should Canada contribute?)
Fewer leaders were in attendance at COP this year, leaving young people feeling the burden of speaking up about climate change more than ever.
“It has become so tiring for me to be just a poster child,” said Marinel Ubaldo, who by age 16 had watched two back-to-back supersized typhoons destroy entire communities in her native Philippines.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Science: Paul Hoffman wins prestigious Kyoto Prize for scientific contribution to snowball Earth hypothesis
- Finance: Nine wealthy families, foundations commit $405-million over next decade to Canadian climate action
- Theatre: At the Calgary Petroleum Club, a stage play reflects tension, polarization about Canada’s energy transition
- Opinion: Our planet is growing hotter and greyer at the same time
- From The Narwhal: Alberta placed fossil fuel insiders on board backing Danielle Smith’s renewables pause
A deeper dive
Why plane safety is needed to protect critically endangered species
Jenn Thornhill Verma is a Pulitzer Ocean Reporting Network fellow for The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, she talks about Entangled, The Globe’s series looking at Canada-U.S. cross-border measures to protect North Atlantic right whales.
To protect the few hundred remaining North Atlantic right whales, scientists must survey tens of thousands of square kilometres of ocean. Despite advances in uncrewed technologies, from buoys and gliders to the drones and satellites in development, crewed surveys aboard boats and airplanes are essential. Scientific aerial surveys are the most effective method, covering the vast ocean efficiently, but also the riskiest.
Our first story in the Entangled series reports on a fatal plane crash last summer of one such survey and the nearly two-month hiatus of Fisheries and Oceans Canada science surveys that followed, highlighting gaps in aerial survey safety and coverage in Canada.
We found that U.S. right whale survey teams have not used single-piloted marine mammal surveys for two decades because of safety concerns that followed a 2003 fatal aerial survey crash in that country. We also found that having Transport Canada and DFO Conservation and Protection “eyes in the sky” cannot replace DFO marine mammal observers, who focus on large whale distribution. Officers from both departments routinely record whale sightings and upped their coverage during the hiatus, but their primary mission is monitoring shipping lanes, tracking illegal fishing and enforcing maritime security.
North Atlantic right whales could be considered the poster child for the need to protect the global ocean. Like millions of migratory species, they cross country borders to reach the critical habitats where they feed, breed and care for their young. Our recent COP16 reporting shows promise for ocean partnerships to protect these “blue corridors,” but the biodiversity discussions fell short of securing the financial commitments needed for the “30x30″ goal (to conserve 30 per cent of habitats by 2030). As COP29 climate finance talks enter their second week, many worry about a similar outcome.
Conserving a species, like conserving the ocean, requires ambitious cross-border policies and actions. In the next story in our series, we’ll take readers aboard a science survey in a region emblematic of the jurisdictional complexities between Canada and the United States. Stay tuned.
- Jenn
Aerial view of two North Atlantic right whales in the Bay of Fundy.Nick Hawkins/The Globe and Mail
What else you missed
- Trump names ex-congressman Lee Zeldin to run Environmental Protection Agency
- Energy experts think Trump will make tariff exemptions for Canadian oil
- Dozens of researchers in Canada join push against importing monkeys for drug testing
- Edmonton zoo introduces endangered red panda cubs Fred and George
- New Delhi closes schools, bans construction as air pollution reaches worst level this season
Opinion and analysis
Rick Smith: With Trump in the White House, expect the states to take charge on climate progress
Kelly Cryderman: What will Donald Trump mean for Canada’s oil sands?
Anna Johnston and Andrew Gage: An oil and gas pollution cap is a no-brainer
Aidan Hollis: Helping the developing world act on climate change will require carrots, not sticks
Green Investing
Indigenous groups, government and industry launch $375-million for conservation initiatives
The Our Land for the Future fund is a collaboration between government, industry and Indigenous peoples that includes $300-million from the federal government and $75-million from private donors. It’s the largest single investment in Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship to date in the Northwest Territories.
The fund will be used for Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship, ecotourism, traditional economic activities and climate research, among other ventures. Money is expected to begin flowing out of it by mid-2025, and it’s expected to support hundreds of jobs annually over 10 years.
- Insurance bureau estimates $110-million in damages from October storms in B.C.
- Amazon, IKEA join other ocean cargo shippers to boost demand for new green fuels
- Federal government offers almost $3.5-million in grants for small businesses in Jasper
The Climate Exchange
We’ve launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers’ questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.
Photo of the week
A member of Peru's National Institute of Glacier and Mountain Ecosystem Research collects water samples as part of field work in the Patoruri glacier basin in August. The Cordillera Blanca mountain range contains the world's largest concentration of tropical glaciers. But as the glaciers of South America retreat, the supply of freshwater is dwindling and its quality is getting worse.MARCO GARRO/The New York Times News Service
Guides and Explainers
- Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what carbon pricing is, what happened at COP28 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.
Catch up on Globe Climate
- Our history of reporting on the environment
- Will America vote red, blue or green?
- In B.C., we go diving for dinner
- Wildlife photography of the year
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