Category Archives: Cost of Climate Change

The Quadra Project: Uninhabitable – Part 1

A global temperature review of 2024 confirms the trend that has been so concerning to climatologists. The last 10 years have been the warmest on record, and 2024 has been the warmest yet. The European Copernicus calculation measured 2024 as 1.6°C above the pre-industrial temperature, with most days being above the 1.5°C aspirational target set by the Paris Agreement (COP21) in 2015. Other organizations measured a slightly different temperature for 2024: NASA at 1.47°C, NOAA at 1.46°C, and Berkley Earth at 1.62°C. The differences are technical but the trend is the same. Global temperatures are rising in concert with our greenhouse gas emissions.

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Feds release flimsy first report on climate risk managment

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government expects the cost of disaster relief funding to balloon to a billion dollars or more each year as the climate crisis advances, according to a new risk-management report. 

The document, examining steps by the federal public service to manage the financial risks and possible rewards tied to climate change, was released by Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc on Monday. 

Over the past decade, the federal government spent an average $793 million annually to help provinces and farms, businesses, industries and communities overcome natural disasters, according to the inaugural Federal Climate-Related Risk Management report. 

However, as extreme weather and catastrophes aggravated by climate change — like the 2021 flooding in B.C. or Hurricane Fiona in Atlantic Canada the following year — occur more frequently, funding transfers to provinces through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement (DFAA) are expected to spike, the report noted. 

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‘No room for fossil fuel expansion’: Grand Chief Steward Phillip clears the air on pipelines

By Matteo Cimellaro, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Long-time climate advocate and First Nation leader Stewart Phillip is walking back controversial remarks he made on Tuesday.

Canada’s climate advocacy world gasped in unison after Phillip appeared to suggest building out pipeline infrastructure at a news conference. 

Phillip, who is the Grand Chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, was a strong critic of pipelines like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion when those projects were under consideration in the early- to mid-2010s. On Tuesday, he said those years were a “different time.” With the uncertainty of the U.S. President Donald Trump, Canada has “no choice” but to reconsider fossil fuel development, Phillip told reporters. 

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3 things you need to know about wildfires in BC

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Wildfire season is never really over. 

When infernos subside in one region, they begin somewhere else. As the world continues to heat up and the climate changes, forested areas like British Columbia will experience greater wildfire impacts year-round, including on the physical and mental health of frontline firefighters.

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Feds invest $117 million to protect drinking water on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

More than $117 million in infrastructure funding will be unleashed to address water woes on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, the federal government announced on Thursday. 

The shíshálh Nation will head up the project along with the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to upgrade the region’s water treatment plant and construct two large storage reservoirs in the Chapman Creek watershed.

Drinking water in the region, which is on B.C.’s southern coast and includes the municipalities of Sechelt and Gibsons, is under threat from a constant string of summer droughts. 

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