Globe Climate: Research shows that forests are essential to Canadian climate pledges

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

More and more people are turning to seafood over meat, viewing it as a more planet-friendly choice. But if you enjoy eating fish, a new series may make you look at your plate differently.

China catches much of the world’s seafood – while frequently violating laws designed to limit the industry’s environmental impact. Worse still, however, is the human cost. Chinese squid ships are among the most brutal: Human trafficking, violence, filthy conditions and death are common. Recent stories from The Globe look inside the deadly world of Chinese squid ships.

The series also takes a look at the lives of people such as Daniel, who left his home in Indonesia to work on a Chinese fishing vessel and never returned. How did he die on the other side of the world? And another investigation, tracing the movement from bait to plate, finds that even companies that advertise environmental and labour stewardship have links to Chinese ships associated with various crimes.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Plastic: Federal Court judge rules that Ottawa’s labelling of all plastics as toxic is unconstitutional
2. Mining: China’s lithium plants generate jobs in Zimbabwe, but expansion is pushing some locals out of their homes
3. Environment: As world heads to climate talks, emissions continue to rise, new bulletin shows
4. Research: Ottawa’s research ‘superchairs’ aim to delve deep into Arctic warming, biosensors and more
5. Energy: Ottawa signals green hydrogen support with financial boost for Nova Scotia project
6. Politics: B.C. Premier Eby tells NDP convention he’s ‘nowhere near satisfied,’ says much more to be done on housing and climate
7. Glaciers: From the ice to the lab, glaciologists search for clues of B.C.’s past wildfires, volcanoes and other calamities
8. Biodiversity: Northern cod numbers may have moved out of critical zone, federal scientist says
9. Northern Canada: This Arctic icebreaker’s annual journeys help keep track of a changing northern climate. We went along for the ride
10. Investigation from The Narwhal: Canadian Museum of Nature rethinks its relationship status with Enbridge

A deeper dive

Parks Canada report shows the role forests play in removing emissions from fossil fuels

A new report offers the clearest picture to date of how forests in Canada’s national parks help fight climate change by storing large amounts of carbon, but also warns that this storage capacity is at risk from natural disturbances, especially wildfires.

The report, released last month by Parks Canada, is the first in a planned series of “carbon atlases” by researchers at the national parks service. The publications will look at how Canada’s protected areas capture, store and emit carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that results from human activities.

This initial research shows that forests in Canadian parks – from the rain forests of Haida Gwaii to the boreal forests of Wood Buffalo National Park – suck up heroic amounts of carbon and store it away in trees, soil and deadwood, year after year.

But it also shows that wildfires have, in some recent years, turned national park forests from a net sink of greenhouse-gas emissions to a net source, highlighting the threat such disturbances can pose to forests’ ability to help the country meet its goal of reaching net-zero emissions.

The report also has implications for forests outside park boundaries. Globally, forests are the largest terrestrial carbon sink. They have removed more than one-quarter of emissions from fossil fuels over the past two decades, the report says. Canada has about 9 per cent of the world’s forests, making all those trees a key part of the federal government’s biodiversity and climate pledges.

This has been an excerpt from a full story written by environment reporter, Wendy Stueck. Read the full piece today

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What else you missed

• Trudeau, Eby announce $1-billion battery plant in Maple Ridge, B.C.
• Majority of Canadians want carbon tax dropped or waived for three years, poll finds
• Study finds Alberta underestimates methane emissions by 50 per cent
• U.N. plastic treaty talks grapple with reuse, recycle, reduce debate
• Guilbeault, Poilievre trade barbs over carbon price exemption bill for farmers
• Environmental groups urge funding halt for TotalEnergies’ Mozambique project
• Endangered sperm whales now have their first protected area in the Caribbean island of Dominica
• World racing to well beyond warming limit as carbon emissions rise instead of plunge, UN report says
• Family to set up endowment in memory of couple killed by bear in Banff National Park
• PEI campground to close permanently owing to damage from post-tropical storm Fiona
• Heat-related deaths could more than quadruple by mid-century, report says
• Sweden opens state-of-the-art plant for sorting plastics for recycling

Opinion and analysis

David Berman: Teck’s deal to shed coal comes at a perfect time

The editorial board: Carbon capture moves from science fiction to reality. The next step is the tough one

David Israelson: Building Canada’s cleaner and greener energy future

Nichole Dusyk and Jessica Kelly: Natural gas is a dying commodity, and Canada needs to stop supporting it

Martin Olszynski: Alberta’s new ‘Tell the Feds’ ads are a naked ploy to unyieldingly serve Big Oil

The editorial board: Support for the carbon tax is collapsing. An agreeable climate policy? Clean power

Green Investing

Peak ESG investing may have come. Coal may not be the great valuation drag after all

Has peak ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing hit the market? It may have, which makes you wonder why Teck Resources, Canada’s premier diversified mining company, is selling its cash-cow coal division. Other resources giants and the funds that invest in befouled industries seem to be reversing course on ESG; they, quietly so, are painting themselves a lighter shade of green and are not getting punished for doing so.

• Hopper CEO’s climate startup Deep Sky raises $57.5-million – but faces huge odds, experts say
• Top companies’ lobbying undermines their climate pledges, study finds
• Obituary: Visionary Cascades founder Bernard Lemaire turned recycling into a multibillion-dollar business
• Millionaire owner of Kitsault, B.C., hopes ghost town sees a second life as an energy hub

Making waves

Each week The Globe will profile a Canadian making a difference. This week we’re highlighting a youth organization.

Generation Climate is a youth-driven initiative focused on building factual awareness about, and solutions to, climate change.

The group works with young Canadians in rural and suburban areas to combat misinformation in their communities and support local climate action projects. In the last two years, they have had nearly 270,000 conversations about climate change across the country. More than 1,000 young people have been trained in climate science, policy and action, and dozens are supporting climate action in their communities or starting their own climate projects. Check out Generation Climate’s online resources today.

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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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 a carbon tax is 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

• Canada’s lost opportunity to finance the critical minerals revolution
• Glaciers could unearth climate history frozen in time
• In B.C.’s rainforest, we search for white Spirit bears
• The $15-billion green financing agency helping Ottawa’s clean-economy ambitions

We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.