Tag Archives: Methane emissions

Cost of Climate Change, Energy

Oil and gas, transportation remain biggest obstacles in Canada’s quest to cut emissions

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada’s progress on significantly cutting pollution by 2030 is being undermined by growing emissions from the country’s oil and gas industry, according to the federal government’s annual emissions report to the United Nations.

Overall, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. However, the federal government was quick to note emissions that year were still lower than before the pandemic.

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Food

Tiny B.C. island community’s answer to climate change? Feed everyone

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quadra Islander Ramona Boyle is rummaging through cardboard boxes when her friend lets out a triumphant shout.

“Look at this!” exclaims dood, known by a single moniker similar to Madonna, plucking a package of thick-cut bacon from a box and waving it in the air.

“This normally costs at least 15 bucks.” 

Boyle peers into the box filled with various packages of frozen meat. 

“There must be hundreds of dollars worth of food in here!” she replies.

The pair, members of the Quadra Island Climate Action Team (I-CAN), are appraising their first haul for a new project to tackle climate change and food insecurity in their rural community. 

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Energy

An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by smell and 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide for its  short-term warming impact on the climate, methane is explosive, toxic  and can make helicopters fall out of the sky. It’s like something out of a superhero movie — or a bad dream.

About half of Canada’s reported methane emissions  are produced by the oil and gas industry, both from regular operations  and leaks. But much of the climate damage caused by the sector’s methane  pollution goes undetected due to weak regulations.

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Energy

LNG Canada eyes electrification as planned expansion would send B.C. emissions skyrocketing

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

For more than a decade, successive B.C. governments have thrown their hats behind an industry hellbent on getting gas out of the ground and across the Pacific to Asian markets.  

LNG Canada, a liquefaction and export facility under construction in Kitimat, is poised to be the first project to do so. As the facility inches closer towards a goal of firing up operations in 2025, its partner companies are eyeing investment for an approved expansion, which would double the amount of gas processed at the plant. 

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