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Leaders of the world’s largest economies struck a climate agreement in the final hours of the G20 summit in Rome but one that fell well short of the breakthroughs that delegates at the Glasgow climate talks had wanted to help build momentum for more ambitious emission-reduction targets.
The G20′s 20-page final communiqué largely reflects the pledges made at past G20 summits and the 2015 Paris climate agreement itself, though there was some progress on reducing the use of coal. The upshot is that the Glasgow summit, known as COP26, which is under way, will come under even more pressure to find its own solutions, reports The Globe’s Eric Reguly from Rome.
John Kirton, founder and director of the G20 Research Group, which is based at University of Toronto, said the Rome summit was a disappointment on the climate front. “The G20 leaders faced a world of fire and flooding and took only baby steps to fight these potentially existential threats,” he said.
Read more climate-related stories:
- Opinion: Climate change is a fact – but to prove it, scientists are bogged down in a battle about what facts really are
- COP26 is a circus with a purpose: Putting climate change in the spotlight so no country can ignore it
- Explainer: What is COP26? A guide to the Glasgow climate talks – the world’s most consequential environment conference
- Listen to The Decibel: COP26 is under way – here’s what’s at stake
Demonstrators march to demand action on the climate crisis during the G20 summit in Rome, Oct. 30, 2021. Several thousand protesters marched in Rome on Saturday afternoon, dancing, drumming and singing 'Bella Ciao' a song identified with the resistance movement during World War II.GIANNI CIPRIANO/The New York Times News Service
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Ontario to release 1,800 death records of Indigenous children
Ontario says it will release about 1,800 death registrations of Indigenous children that it found, amid growing calls for governments and churches to turn over records that shed light on the residential-school system.
The province says it will transfer the documents to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, or NCTR, within the next few months. It would be just the third province to do so, joining British Columbia and Alberta, according to the centre. Other jurisdictions have produced some records, but Raymond Frogner, the NCTR’s head of archives, said the responses remain incomplete.
Demands to release provincial records stretch back at least six years, when the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on chief coroners and provincial vital-statistics agencies to identify those records. But pressure has mounted since the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced last spring that more than 200 unmarked graves had been located at the site of the former residential institution near Kamloops, B.C.
“It’s unfortunate that it took such a dramatic event to really expedite, finally, the process,” said Frogner.
Read more on reconciliation:
- ‘A great dishonour’: AFN chief RoseAnne Archibald calls for other gesture if Canadian flags on federal building are raised
- Canada has not truly released all residential-school records
- Pope Francis will visit Canada for Indigenous reconciliation. What did it take to get here?
B.C. seeks to decriminalize possession of illicit drugs in bid to stem worsening crisis
British Columbia is seeking to decriminalize personal possession of up to a total of 4.5 grams of illicit drugs such as heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine, as the province is on pace to post another record year of drug-poisoning deaths.
If the proposal is approved, people caught with less than that amount would be given information on how to access local health and social services. There would be no alternative administrative penalties, such as fines, or mandatory referrals to education or treatment.
The details are outlined in the province’s 44-page submission to Health Canada requesting an exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Potential conflicts of interest prompt Rogers to switch law firms as fight for control of telecom heads to court: The battle for control of Rogers, which is coming to a head in a B.C. court Monday, has involved an ever-increasing cast of lawyers as players in the boardroom drama cycle their way through law firms because of potential conflicts of interest. In late October, Rogers replaced its first set of advisers, at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, with lawyers at Goodmans LLP, an unusual shift for a company in the midst of a court battle. The two firms declined to comment on the switch. Monday’s hearing is expected to decide if Edward Rogers, son of the late company founder, can dictate who is on, and off, the board of the telecom giant.
Read more: Rogers executive says he was unaware of Edward Rogers’s promotion plan, court records show
Surge in Kashmir violence raises fears of return to bloody sectarian past: As a Kashmiri, Sanjay Tickoo has lived through it at all: decades of insurgency, Indian army-led counterterrorism operations, civilian killings and endless curfews. But the kind of fear he’s experienced over the past four weeks, he said, is on a whole different level. The spate of targeted killings carried out largely against non-locals and minority communities prompted security forces to whisk Tickoo away from his home to an undisclosed safe house. Tickoo heads an organization that advocates for the rights of the Kashmiri Pandits.
China wants to dominate the global electric vehicle market – and it’s using Congolese minerals to do it: China commands the lion’s share of the electric vehicle market, with more than 1.1 million vehicles sold in the first half of this year alone. Its “Made in China 2025″ initiative calls for the country to become the dominant force in the market, but the road to get there runs through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC. More than 90 per cent of the DRC’s cobalt exports in recent years have gone to China, which is also the No. 1 destination for Congolese copper.
Vancouver mayoral race kicks off – and it’s a marathon, not a sprint: With less than a year to go before the Oct. 15, 2022, municipal vote, the campaign season, and the flurry of banquet-hall events that accompany it, in Vancouver has begun. This past Monday, Mayor Kennedy Stewart was at the Pinnacle Hotel Waterfront making his pitch to fight for better housing, drug policies and climate efforts, and on Thursday, Mark Marissen, a long-time federal and provincial consultant, was at the legendary Fraseriew Hall as he looks to mount a mayoral bid. Along with the five known mayoral contenders, seven civic parties have already joined the long-distance race.
‘I thought it was a Halloween stunt’: Man in Joker costume attacks passengers: A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman’s Joker costume attacked train passengers in Tokyo on Sunday evening, leaving 17 people injured, including a man in his 60s who was stabbed. One video posted on Twitter showed people running away from a train car, as seconds later, a fire broke out. Recalling the moment he saw other passengers in a panic, one witness told the Yomiuri newspaper that he “thought it was a Halloween stunt.”
MORNING MARKETS
Global shares rise: Stocks advanced in Europe and most of Asia on Monday, with Tokyo’s benchmark up 2.6 per cent after the ruling Liberal Democrats won a stronger than expected majority in an election Sunday. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.53 per cent. Germany’s Dax and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.98 per cent and 1.04 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.88 per cent. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 80.74 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
‘Like looking through a mirror’: Greg Gilhooly talks Kyle Beach revelation as John Doe in Blackhawks lawsuit
“Gilhooly believes that not only does the system need an overhaul, but the whole culture of hockey needs to change. He says the reason so very few speak out about abuse is because of the intense homophobia that is rampant not just in the NHL but in hockey from the minor leagues to the beer leagues. Homophobic slurs are not only hurled in anger, he says, but in dressing-room banter.” - Roy MacGregor
This is a story about race in Canadian politics. And it’s hopeful
“But here’s what we believe can safely be said about the mayoral elections in Calgary and Edmonton: The race of the candidates, their religion (or lack thereof), and their status as first-generation Canadians appear to have been irrelevant to most voters. Maybe not all voters, whether pro or con, but surely most.” - Globe editorial
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Egypt’s long-overdue museum revolution will thrill cultural tourists. Pity about the pandemic
The pandemic dampened international travel to tourist hot spots, and Egypt was no exception. The numbers are climbing back, said Amr Karim, who manages Travco, Egypt’s biggest tourism company, but he predicts that it will take another two to three years to reach normal levels.
Still, Egypt is hoping to lure tourists back with two new museums, especially the Grand Egyptian Museum, the long-delayed project that will be the largest archeological museum in the world, when it opens next year.
MOMENT IN TIME: The life and times of the Sudbury Superstack
Smoke billows out of a 381-metre tall 'Superstack,' which sits atop Inco Ltd.'s Copper Cliff nickel smelting operation in Sudbury, Ont., circa Aug. 6, 1981.Hans Eijsenck/Ontario Ministry of the Environment
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe will feature one of these images. This month, we’re looking at causes of air pollution.
When it began operating in 1972, the Superstack in Sudbury was Canada’s tallest freestanding structure (later surpassed by Toronto’s CN Tower) and a symbol of the country’s shifting attitudes toward industrial air pollution. Built by Inco Ltd. (now Vale Canada Ltd.), the Superstack was designed to lift sulphur dioxide and other pollutants away from the mining company’s smelting operations and the surrounding community, and then spread them out more widely. In this, it was largely successful, but by the time this photograph was taken on Aug. 6, 1981, the Superstack was symbolic of a broader national and international discussion about curbing sulphur emissions to stop acid rain. Decommissioned since July, 2020, the stack is now part of a different debate related to its legacy as a local landmark. Ivan Semeniuk
Subscribers and registered users of globeandmail.com can dig deeper into our News Photo Archive at tgam.ca/newsphotoarchive
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