This was produced by AJLabs and was published by Aljazeera News on July 5, 2023.
This article was written by Justin Rowlatt and was published by BBC News on July 8, 2023.
This article was written by Marco Chown Oved and was published in the Toronto Star on July 11, 2023.
The road to Ontario’s economic future is paved with “clean” electricity, providing reliable and inexpensive power for people and businesses, according to a long-term planning document released Monday.
But the 86-page document leaves a big question unanswered: How clean is clean?
While repeatedly emphasizing how carbon-free electricity has attracted industrial and manufacturing investment to Ontario, and will help households and companies cut their carbon emissions by electrifying their heating and transportation, the Progressive Conservative government’s first comprehensive electricity planning document doesn’t say if the system will go entirely to net-zero emissions, a requirement to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
With demand for power on the rise for the first time since 2005, the report, titled “Powering Ontario’s Growth,” lays out the government’s vision for the grid between now and 2050, setting in motion several long-term projects that could take a decade or more to come to fruition, including pumped-hydro storage and Canada’s first new full-scale nuclear plant in 30 years. The plan also includes shorter-term objectives, including upgraded transmission lines and more support for energy efficiency.
“It’s great to see the government recognizing how much investment really is reliant on clean energy,” said Rachel Doran, director of policy and strategy at Clean Energy Canada. “What’s missing is we need to know the end goal. Clarity on net-zero objectives are essential.”
Net zero is generally accepted to involve cutting greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible and using offsets to get the rest of the way.
Making a net-zero pledge is becoming standard for governments and businesses around the world, Doran said.
“Net zero is something that businesses are embracing,” she said. “They put forward a 2050 commitment or a 2045 commitment and they build a plan on how to get there. I think it’s helpful for governments to use the same tools.”
Ninety-two per cent of global GDP is covered by a net-zero commit- ment, according to Net Zero Track- er. The Science Based Targets Ini- tiative says one-third of companies trading on all stock exchanges have one, too.
The federal government was elected on a promise to achieve net- zero electricity from coast to coast by 2035, and has made it a condi- tion for accessing billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits, an- nounced in this spring’s budget.
“Wouldn’t this have been a good opportunity for them to make a net-zero commitment?” said Keith Brooks, program director at Envi- ronmental Defence, pointing to a section of the plan that says the federal credits will lower the cost of new generation in Ontario.
Brooks criticized the plan for lack- ing specific targets for how much of each kind of generation — nuclear, hydro, gas and renewables — will be needed in the future and no cost estimates for what will be a massive build-out of the system, one that envisions doubling the amount of power available by 2050.
“This looks like an after-the-fact rationalization for recent decisions this government has made to build new nuclear and new gas plants,” he said.
Last week, Energy Minister Todd Smith made back-to-back an- nouncements for new small mod- ular reactors at Darlington and Canada’s first new full-scale nucle- ar build since the early 1990s at Bruce. This came several months after the province announced ex- pansions and upgrades at natural gas plants across the province to meet rising peak demand. (Ontario also announced battery storage projects that will pair with renew- ables to provide more carbon-free power on demand.)
Asked why the electricity plan didn’t include a commitment to net zero, energy minister spokesperson Palmer Lockridge emailed a statement saying the province will continue to have “one of the cleanest electricity grids in Canada and the world.” He said the long timelines required to get new infrastructure built, exacerbated by federal government requirements for assessments of environmental, social, economic, cultural and heritage impacts, are holding up clean energy investments.
“The largest barrier to achieving a zero-emissions electricity system in Ontario remains the federal government’s Impact Assessment Act, because it can’t take a decade to site new clean electricity generation,” Lockridge wrote.
The province’s electricity plan includes two pumped-water energy storage projects, expanded energy efficiency programs and support for rooftop solar and bidirectional charging for electric vehicles, so they can feed energy into the grid. It also mentions new high-voltage transmission lines across the province — considered essential for moving power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. They include one into downtown Toronto, several in southwestern Ontario to connect London, Windsor and Sarnia, and more to support clean steel in Sault Ste. Marie and industry in Timmins and in Ottawa.
When Premier Doug Ford was first elected in 2018, he spent $231 million to cancel more than 700 clean energy projects and eliminated the electric vehicle (EV) purchase subsidy. With no new renewables coming online, the electricity system has come to rely more heavily on natural gas, driving up emissions.
As the global market for EVs has taken off, Ford’s government has come to herald Ontario’s “clean energy advantage” as a way to reverse the exodus of industry from Ontario, securing new battery and EV manufacturing plants, and the thousands of jobs that come with them.
And Monday’s electricity document, subtitled: “Ontario’s Plan for a Clean Energy Future,” appears to be Ford’s first tentative step back into investment in clean energy.
“This is the first time a Ford government energy document mentions wind and solar and is not dismissive of it,” said Richard Carlson, director of energy policy at Pollution Probe.
Once the current gas and storage procurements are finished in 2026, the plan would have the province’s electricity system operator launch a new round of requests for proposals for “non-emitting energy technologies such as wind, solar, hydroelectric and biogas.”
Taking into account the time to receive bids, pick a proponent and construct a project, this likely means no new renewables will be operational until 2030, he said.
“It’s still a ways away,” Carlson said. “But it looks like the Ford government is opening the door to renewables.”
This article was written by Jeff Gray and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 11, 2023.
Ontario has opened the door to new wind and solar power farms in the coming years, days after announcing two massive nuclear projects as the province prepares for electricity demand to potentially double over the next three decades.
The return to renewable energy projects appears in the government’s Powering Ontario plan, released on Monday, which says that the province will look to another round of electricity generation procurement in 2025-26 that will include “non-emitting energy technologies such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biogas.”
However, the report also says any new projects will need to have resolutions in support passed by local municipal councils and that Indigenous “participation and support” will be a “key feature.”
The Progressive Conservative government cancelled hundreds of wind and solar energy contracts when it was first elected in 2018, landing it in court and costing it more than $200-million, as it argued the previous Liberal government was wrong to lock in inflated rates for greener power. Plus, windmill farms in particular had also faced vehement local opposition in some areas.
Since then, environmentalists and opposition politicians have painted the government as antigreen power, noting that as Ontario’s nuclear reactors go offline for phased multibillion-dollar refurbishments, the province will increasingly rely on polluting gas plants for electricity.
In the single biggest boost for nuclear power in Ontario in decades, Energy Minister Todd Smith last week announced that his government would work with privately owned Bruce Power to potentially build the first new full-scale nuclear power plant in Ontario since 1993, as well as three more small modular reactors (SMRs) on the site of Ontario Power Generation’s existing Darlington nuclear plant.
On Monday, Mr. Smith was in Windsor to unveil the rest of the government’s new power plan, designed to respond to a recent report from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) that said Ontario could need to spend $400-billion to decarbonize its power grid by 2050, while doubling its size to cope with new demands from electric vehicles and increasing electrification in other areas.
In an interview, Mr. Smith said conditions are different for wind and solar power from in 2018. His government’s procurement of new battery storage projects will allow for these projects to be more useful, even when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.
But he defended his focus on nuclear power. The previous Liberals, he said, did not have to worry about rising electricity needs “because demand was flat in the province and jobs were leaving for other jurisdictions. This is the first time in 18 years that electricity demand is increasing.”
The rest of the plan includes calls for new transmission lines and better use of existing hydroelectric dams. And it calls for the IESO to review two proposed long-duration “pump-storage” facilities, one in Meaford and the other in Marmora. These are hydroelectric dams that can store water in reservoirs, pumped there with excess power produced during off-peak times, and then generate electricity with it when needed. The document also says Ontario should launch a new round of improved energy conservation programs.
Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, said the plan was flawed for treating renewable energy as an “afterthought,” with massive new nuclear plants still its focus.
“My big concern is that they are putting the cart before the horse when it comes to system planning,” he said. “They are announcing 6,000 megawatts of nuclear before they even start looking at energy conservation or renewables.”
Provincial Liberal interim leader John Fraser accused the government of being “asleep at the switch” after cancelling scores of green energy contracts in 2018 saying the recent report of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which warned that Ontario faces a risk of power shortfalls if extreme conditions were to hit this summer.
Peter Tabuns, the NDP climate action and energy critic, said the government’s plan was too scant on details and actual cost projections – and still manages to play down the lowest-cost options: solar power and energy conservation.
“For a lot of pages, with a lot of pictures, it’s a pretty thin report,” Mr. Tabuns said.
Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner accused Premier Doug Ford of having “grossly mismanaged” Ontario’s energy supply, while missing the boat on attracting the rush of global investment in renewable energy.
This article was written by Gloria Dickie and Kate Abnett, and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 11, 2023.
As many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe’s sweltering heat waves last summer, according to new research, suggesting countries’ heat preparedness efforts are falling fatally short.
The study by researchers from European health institutes estimated that more than 61,600 people died from heat-related causes across 35 European countries from late May to early September, 2022, during Europe’s hottest summer on record.
The study, published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, found that Mediterranean countries – Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain – saw the highest death rate according to population size.
“The Mediterranean is affected by desertification, heat waves are amplified during summer just because of these drier conditions,” said study co-author Joan Ballester, a professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
In a summer that saw European countries hit by intense wildfires and drought, Portugal recorded a peak temperature of 47 C in July – just shy of the country’s hottest temperature on record, of 47.3 C in 2003. In absolute numbers, Italy, Spain and Germany saw the most lives lost due to the heat, with 18,010; 11,324 and 8,173 deaths respectively.
As human-caused climate change drives temperatures higher, heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe. Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable.
The researchers used epidemiological models to analyze how many deaths could be directly linked to heat, out of all excess deaths European countries recorded last summer – a rate of excess mortality that was unusually high. Countries including France introduced national plans to cope with intense temperatures following deadly heatwaves in Europe in 2003 – with early warning systems and more cooling green spaces in cities among the measures.
But researchers said last year’s high death toll suggests these strategies are falling short, and should be urgently strengthened.
“It’s an indication to those countries that they need to review their plans and see what is not working,” said Chloe Brimicombe, a climate scientist at Austria’s University of Graz.
Germany’s Health Ministry last month launched a campaign to guide local authorities in drawing up heat action plans, such as through increased protection for homeless people, or measures like providing more drinking water in public spaces.
“The number of deaths is increasing every year … It’s relatively easy to save them if we have a plan,” German health minister Karl Lauterbach said.
This article was written by Isabella O’Malley, Brittany Peterson, and Drew Costley, and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 11, 2023.
As destructive floods sweep across areas ranging from New Delhi to New York, scientists warn climate change will make such events more common
As storms form in a warming and wetter atmosphere, scientists expect intense rain events to be more common
Schools in New Delhi had to close Monday after heavy monsoon rains battered the Indian capital. Landslides and flash floods killed at least 15 people over the past three days. Farther north, the overflowing Beas River swept vehicles downstream as it flooded neighbourhoods.
In Japan, torrential rain pounded the southwest, causing floods and mudslides that left two people dead and at least six others missing Monday. Local TV showed damaged houses in Fukuoka prefecture and muddy water from the swollen Yamakuni River appearing to threaten a bridge in the town of Yabakei. In Ulster County, in New York’s Hudson Valley and in Vermont, some said the flooding is the worst they’ve seen since Hurricane Irene, called the worst weather event in that county’s history when it hit in 2011.
Although destructive flooding in India, Japan, China and Turkey and the United States might seem like distant events, atmospheric scientists say they have this in common: Storms are forming in a warmer atmosphere, making extreme rainfall a reality right now. The additional warming that scientists predict is coming will only make it worse.
That’s because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which results in storms dumping more precipitation that can have deadly outcomes. Pollutants, especially carbon dioxide and methane, are heating up the atmosphere. Instead of allowing heat to radiate away from Earth into space, they hold onto it.
While climate change is not the cause of storms unleashing the rainfall, these storms are forming in an atmosphere that is becoming warmer and wetter.
“Sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit can hold twice as much water as 50 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Rodney Wynn, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay. “Warm air expands and cool air contracts. You can think of it as a balloon – when it’s heated the volume is going to get larger, so therefore it can hold more moisture.”
For every 1 degree Celsius, which equals 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the atmosphere warms, it holds approximately 7 per cent more moisture.
According to NASA, the average global temperature has increased by at least 1.1 C since 1880.
“When a thunderstorm develops, water vapour gets condensed into rain droplets and falls back down to the surface. So as these storms form in warmer environments that have more moisture in them, the rainfall increases,” explained Brian Soden, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami.
Along Turkey’s mountainous and scenic Black Sea coast, heavy rains swelled rivers and damaged cities with flooding and landslides. At least 15 people were killed by flooding in another mountainous region, in southwestern China.
“As the climate gets warmer we expect intense rain events to become more common, it’s a very robust prediction of climate models,” Prof. Soden added. “It’s not surprising to see these events happening, it’s what models have been predicting ever since day one.”
This opinion was written by Angela Bischoff and was published in Canada’s National Observer on July 7, 2023.
This article was written by Laura Paddison and was published by CNN News on July 8, 2023.
Visitors leaving the Forbidden City on a hot day in Beijing, Thursday, June 29, 2023.Andy Wong/APCNN —
The world is blasting through climate records as scientists sound the alarm: The likelihood is growing that 2023 could be the hottest year on record, and the climate crisis could be altering our weather in ways they don’t yet understand.
And they are not holding back – “extraordinary,” “terrifying” and “uncharted territory” are just a few of the ways they have described the recent spike in global temperature.
This article was written by AP/Reuters/UNTV/ANI/Instagram @grismediofotografia and was published in The Guardian on July 7, 2023.
‘If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation,’ said António Guterres after reports emerged about the world temperature records being broken on Monday and Tuesday.
The average global air temperature was 17.18C on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday
This article was written by Julia Payne and Kate Abnett, and was published by Reuters News on July 6, 2023.
Mobilize, Canada! 