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

Where do you plant a tree with a 1,000-year lifespan?

It’s a dangerous time to be a tree. A baby Douglas fir could have 1,000 years of life ahead – but only if you choose the right spot. And it’s hard to imagine any piece of earth being left in peace for 10 years, let alone 10 centuries. As Arno Kopecky searches to find suitable planting ground for his sapling, he realized there’s no better way to illustrate that, while we can’t change the past, the future remains unwritten.

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

Open this photo in gallery:

Arno Kopecks plants a Douglas Fir that he grew in a pot on his porch, by the ravine in Renfrew Community park in Vancouver, B.C. on April 3, 2024.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail


Noteworthy reporting this week:

  1. Plastics: Delegates in Ottawa making strides toward global plastics treaty, Environment Minister says. Talks on curbing global plastics pollution started last week. Meanwhile, Indigenous delegates say they are being left out of key talks
  2. EV production: Why Honda’s deal to manufacture electric vehicles and batteries is different (Plus, Adam Radwanski, The Globe’s climate policy columnist, is on The Decibel podcast)
  3. Firefighting: Ontario to give wildland firefighters presumptive coverage for cancers, PTSD
  4. Pollution: Aamjiwnaang First Nation declares state of emergency over industrial benzene leak
  5. Carbon tax: Singh noncommittal on keeping scheduled increases to Liberals’ carbon price in place. Also, Saskatchewan residents to get carbon rebates despite province not paying levies, and the province shouldn’t pick fight with CRA, Trudeau says
  6. From The Narwhal: It’s the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park.’ And Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation pulled it off without waiting on Canada

A deeper dive

What comes next for TMX

Jeffrey Jones writes about sustainable finance. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about what happens now that the Trans Mountain pipeline is finished.

Canadians did not plan on buying a pipeline when they elected Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015.

Yet we ended up with one. Now, years behind the initial startup target and billions of dollars more in construction costs, the Trans Mountain expansion is about to go into service, shipping 590,000 barrels a day of Alberta crude to the Pacific Coast.

It seemed a good time for The Globe and Mail to take stock. My colleagues, Emma Graney, Wendy Stueck and Brent Jang, joined me in an in-depth examination laying out what the prospects are now that a whopping $34-billion has been spent on the project, and the taps are opening.

How did we get here? Recall 2018: With regulatory and court delays dragging on, the U.S. owner of the pipeline threw its hands up and said it would shut the massive expansion project down. Mr. Trudeau and his ministers stepped in and bought the existing line between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., and pledged to complete the project.

So much has changed since the expansion was first discussed a dozen years ago. We looked at what shifts have taken place in oil markets, and what climate policies and Indigenous relations have meant for the economics. Key to the story is the government’s aim to sell the pipeline. It has said proposals for ownership by First Nations and Métis communities would be welcome. One big snag could be that massive cost overrun, which will mean higher-than-expected transport tolls for shippers and difficulty for Canadians recouping the full investment.

The major oil sands producers that are Trans Mountain’s base of committed shippers are excited by the prospect of reaching new markets overseas, and predict it will mean higher returns for their output. The question is: For how long, as Canada moves closer to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050? Meanwhile, safety is in sharp focus, especially in the waters off the West Coast, with tanker traffic poised to surge to spirit away all that crude.

Canadians have a lot at stake, and we’ve tried to put it all in perspective at a crucial time.

Take a minute this week to read the full story.

- Jeff

Open this photo in gallery:

The Burnaby Terminal tank farm in B.C. is is the end point of the Trans Mountain Pipeline System.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press


What else you missed


Opinion and analysis

Lucy Hargreaves: One small reference to carbon removal in 2024 budget, one big leap for Canada?

Rick Smith: This could be the year we solve plastics pollution

Agostino Petroni: Are European farmers right to be angry?

Elliott Cappell: After Canada’s mild winter, we should expect the unexpected on climate change

Editorial board: The Liberals promise billions for clean power. Don’t undermine it with politics


Green Investing

Opinion: Copper is the new oil and Big Mining sees the metal as its lifeblood

Copper has become the new oil, and no big mining house can prosper without the material considered critical to the transition to a low-carbon future, Eric Reguly writes.

Decarbonization cannot happen without copper. The metal is a superb conductor of electricity, is ductile (meaning it can rolled up or pulled into wires without breaking), conducts heat well and does not corrode like steel. Everyone wants it and the price is soaring as supply proves incapable of meeting demand.


Making waves

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


Photo of the week

Open this photo in gallery:

People gather at a jetty during yet another electricity blackout in Yangon, Myanmar, on April 26, 2024. As the sun sets on another scorching day, the hot and bothered descend on the city's parks. For many of Yangon's eight million residents, relief comes only at night and outdoors, with the public spaces offering natural shade and blissful breezes.SAI AUNG MAIN/Getty Images


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