Op-Eds
Ontario’s electricity sector has struggled with rising system costs for more than a decade. The main solution governments of all stripes have come up with is to shift costs to taxpayers. These subsidies for electricity use now cost taxpayers more than what the province spends on long-term care. It’s time for some proper fixes.
The crux of the problem is the increase in the cost of electricity supply from high-cost contracts signed by the province. At the same time, Ontario has consumed less electricity than forecast by the government when it struck the contracts. With high fixed costs in contracts spread over less demand, the result has been upward pressure on prices, mitigated mainly by your tax dollars.
How can…
The battle over Enbridge Line 5 – unfolding in a Michigan courtroom – shows how declarations of friendship between Canadian and American governments are hostage to local politics.
This past February, the Prime Minister and the U.S. President concluded a Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. While the Roadmap doesn’t refer to pipeline issues, in spirit and intent it should prevent actions by the state of Michigan that will seriously harm broad Canadian interests. The Line 5 dispute is of a different order than trade cases involving discrete sectors such as softwood lumber or dairy products. Much different.
Of critical importance, Line 5 is governed by a binding treaty between Canada and the United States,…
La KitKat deviendra carboneutre d’ici 2025, promet Nestlé. Mais on espère bien plus qu’une opération de marketing de la surenchère des cibles de réduction des gaz à effet de serre, à laquelle participent les gouvernements, les financiers et les entreprises, dans leur longue course pour le climat.
Au sommet que le président Biden a tenu le Jour de la Terre, il s’est engagé à réduire les émissions de GES des États-Unis de 50 à 52 % d’ici 2030. Le premier ministre Trudeau a promis une baisse allant de 40 à 45 %, le Japon, de 46 %, l’Union européenne, de 55 % et le Royaume-Uni, de 68 %.
Bien qu’impressionnants, ces chiffres ne sont pas comparables, car les années de base pour mesurer l’effort s’…
La création probable d’un Sustainability Standards Board (SSB) mondial fera avancer la finance durable d’un grand pas, lui permettant d’exercer une pression plus efficace sur les entreprises, afin qu’elles s’engagent elles aussi dans un plan de transition vers la carboneutralité, dans leur propre intérêt et celui de la planète.
La cible nette zéro carbone d’ici 2050 est en voie d’être adoptée par le Canada et de nombreux pays, ainsi que par un nombre grandissant d’entreprises et d’investisseurs.
Le SSB aura pour mission d’établir des normes internationales régissant la divulgation par les entreprises des informations de nature ESG, c’est-à-dire portant sur leurs actions et leurs effets sur l’environnement, mais…
Shaping a successful economy with much lower GHG emissions will be an ever-present challenge for the next three decades. The low-carbon transition has begun, but is still at a very early stage; we have only a broad idea of what the transition might look like in the years ahead. Nevertheless, legislative assemblies, including here in Canada, have charged ahead and declared the ambition of attaining an economy with no net GHG emissions by 2050.
There will not be a single common pathway – many already exist or will emerge, and they will compete for market positioning for consumers and businesses. Rather than referring to pathways, it would be more accurate to refer to an evolving energy-transition road map, with many…
