Tag Archives: Jerry DeMarco

Nature

Canada misses target to protect quarter of land and water, audits find

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

Canada has failed to meet its promise to protect a quarter of the country’s lands and waters by the end 2025, a trio of new federal audits shows.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada aren’t on track to meet conservation targets for terrestrial or marine areas by year’s end, reports from environment and sustainable development commissioner Jerry DeMarco show.

Continue reading Canada misses target to protect quarter of land and water, audits find →
Forests

Logging pollution is on the rise — but don’t expect to find it on the accounting books

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

As the world uses more and more wood over the next few decades, the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions associated with logging will rise, new research predicts.

Yet many of these emissions are not currently attributed to the logging industry because widely used accounting methods leave the impression that wood harvests only marginally increase carbon emissions or don’t increase them at all, according to new research published in Nature.

Continue reading Logging pollution is on the rise — but don’t expect to find it on the accounting books →
Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Endangered salmon are left to flounder as Canada hosts COP15

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government is touting lofty goals at the United Nations biodiversity conference underway in Montreal, but Ottawa is failing to save iconic salmon and steelhead trout populations on the edge of extinction, B.C. conservation groups say. 

Continue reading Endangered salmon are left to flounder as Canada hosts COP15 →
Cost of Climate Change

Canada lays out new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas

By Cloe Logan, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault proposed regulations Tuesday that would help Canada cut back on emissions of methane in the oil and gas industry, a powerful greenhouse gas.

He made the announcement alongside John Kerry, the United States’ special presidential envoy for climate, at this year’s United Nations climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The pair said Canada and the U.S. will work together to curb emissions of methane — which is 86 times more powerful than carbon for the first 20 years it exists in the atmosphere — in both countries.

Continue reading Canada lays out new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas →
Environment

Canada can still achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Commissioner says

It has been more than a month since the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, presented a series of devastating reports about Canada’s inept performance in addressing the climate crisis to the House of Commons. 

“There is a need for the federal government to achieve real outcomes on environmental protection and sustainable development—not just words on paper or unfulfilled promises. All too often, Canada’s environmental commitments are not met with the actions needed to protect air, land, water and wildlife, now and for future generations. And that is a trend we urgently need to reverse,” said Jerry DeMarco. “We’ve had nine plans over the last 31 years,  from 1990 to now, and none of them have achieved their objectives.” 

Continue reading Canada can still achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Commissioner says →