Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak holds up a Green briefcase as he arrives for a speech at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021.Alberto Pezzali/The Associated Press
Alberta, with largest oil industry, sends fewer to COP than any other energy province
The province with Canada’s largest oil and gas industry has sent one of the country’s smallest delegations to the international climate conference, where emissions from that industry are under scrutiny.
A preliminary list of the Canadian delegation shows Alberta has sent two bureaucrats.
Newfoundland has nine people at the meetings, Manitoba has six and Ontario has four, as does the Northwest Territories. Quebec has 36 representatives. Several Indigenous and environmental groups also have stronger numbers at the meetings, which are setting the world’s path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
Premier Jason Kenney has said he didn’t see the value of one more politician at what he called a “gab fest.”
– The Canadian Press
12:45 p.m. ET
Non-profit group to put spotlight on Indigenous clean energy voices at COP26 summit
As world leaders gather in Glasgow for COP26, they are facing calls to think big.
In sessions this week at the climate change conference in Glasgow, Mr. Harper and three other ICE delegates will be showcasing such projects and making the case that Indigenous communities should have a key role in shaping the future energy landscape.
“We will not meet our climate targets unless Indigenous peoples are empowered – and I think the world needs to hear this and the world really needs to understand this,” Mr. Harper said in an interview from Toronto before he left for Glasgow.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen takes part in a CNN television interview in the Action Zone at COP26 on November 03, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
12:00 p.m. ET
Coalition formed to build low-carbon tech market
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, nearly three dozen large corporations including Apple and Amazon, and the World Economic Forum are launching an alliance to build a market for technologies that generate low levels of carbon dioxide.
The First Movers Coalition announced on Wednesday aims to help companies set their purchasing plans in a way that will “create new market demand for low-carbon technologies,” the World Economic Forum said.
“Technology has given us the tools to reduce our emissions and build a stronger and more inclusive economy of the future,” forum President Borge Brende said. “For innovators and investors to play their part in tackling the climate crisis, they need clear market demand.”
– AP
Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt meets with the Minga Indigena indigenous at COP26 on November 03, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
11:00 a.m. ET
Fears for farming and trade stopped India signing COP26 forest, methane pledges
India did not sign the COP26 pledge to stop deforestation and cut methane gas emissions by 2030 because of its concerns over the impact on trade, on the country’s vast farm sector, and the role of livestock in the rural economy, officials said.
Yesterday, world leaders pledged to stop deforestation by the end of the decade and cut emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to help slow climate change.
Agriculture accounts for over 15% of India’s $2.7 trillion economy and employs almost half of the country’s more than 1.3 billion people. Around two-thirds of Indians live in the countryside and India’s large livestock population is central to the country’s agriculture and its village economy. That makes reducing methane emissions, generated by cows’ digestive systems and manure, a major challenge.
– Reuters
Extension Rebellion activists protest in front of JP Morgan premises as they take part in a demonstration against ‘Greenwashing’ near the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021.Alastair Grant/The Associated Press
10:00 a.m. ET
Kremlin defends climate actions after Biden barb
The Kremlin has rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin for not attending the U.N. climate conference.
“His tundra is burning — literally, the tundra is burning. He has serious, serious climate problems, and he is mum on willingness to do anything,” Biden said Tuesday of Putin and the wildfires that scorched Siberia this summer.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow does not agree with Biden’s characterization. He said the Russian delegation at COP26 actively participated in the summit.
“Russia’s climate action don’t have the goal of being pegged to an event,” Peskov said. “Of course, we are not belittling the significance of the event in Glasgow, but Russia’s actions are consistent, serious and well-thought-through.”
– AP
9:30 a.m. ET
Bank of Canada plans new tools to assess climate impact on economy
The Bank of Canada said on Wednesday that it will develop new models and data sources to better understand how climate change is impacting Canada’s economy, and said it would include these findings in its quarterly forecasts to help markets price risks.
The central bank, in a release tied to the UN’s COP26 global climate summit, said it will assess how more frequent severe weather events and the transition to low-carbon growth affect Canada’s potential output, the labor market and inflation.
“Climate change and the transition to a low-carbon net zero economy will have significant macroeconomic consequences, touching every region and sector of the Canadian and global economies,” the bank said in a statement.
“It will also have implications for structural change, the growth of potential output, and price stability,” it said.
– Reuters
8:30 a.m. ET
Canada loses bid to host corporate sustainability data to Frankfurt at COP26, but gets a secondary hub
Frankfurt has been named as the headquarters of a new global organization responsible for providing companies with standards for reporting sustainability measures – and Montreal will be home to a secondary office.
The locations of the offices for the new International Sustainability Standards Board were announced along with other details of the organization at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Wednesday.
The secondary hub in Montreal is consolation prize for Canada. Numerous banks, insurers, pension funds, industry associations and major corporations backed a Canadian bid to host the ISSB, even offering a “welcome fund” to support its operations for an initial period.
As politicians exit, $130 trillion worth of financiers take the stage
With national leaders gone from the U.N. climate conference, attention turned on Wednesday to the state treasuries and the businesses and financiers responsible for carrying out the pledges to cut emissions and build infrastructure.
A main aim of the COP26 talks is to secure enough national promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions – mostly from burning ubiquitous fossil fuels – to avert the worst climate disasters by keeping the rise in the global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But how exactly to meet those pledges, particularly in the developing world — is still being worked out. Above all, it will need a lot of money.
Among the most vexing questions are who should pay and how the funds can be channelled through the financial system quickly and effectively. A major goal will be to attract more private money.
The issues are so important that organizers dedicated all of Wednesday for executives and public finance leaders to discuss them.
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero – an umbrella group that includes all the major Western banks as well as insurers and asset managers – announced that firms responsible for managing $130 trillion in capital, equivalent to 40% of the world’s financial assets, had signed up to assuming a “fair share” of decarbonisation.
World Bank president David Malpass, Kenyan Minister Ukur Yatani Kanacho, Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor and now the UN special envoy for climate action and finance, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva hold a panel discussion at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow on November 3, 2021.DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images
6:30 a.m. ET
Climate financing target for 2023 in reach “if we are lucky”
A spate of last-minute pledges from developed countries have made it possible but not certain that a target of $100 billion in climate financing could be reached in 2022, Germany’s state secretary for the environment said on Wednesday.
“We thought already three weeks ago that we would have all the pledges,” he told a news conference with his Canadian counterpart, natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson, at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
“But we saw even yesterday from Japan a very substantive announcement… So if we are lucky we can reach $100 billion in 2022 but definitely in 2023.”
Mark Carney says ‘money is here’ for net zero aligned projects
UN climate envoy Mark Carney called on Wednesday for more blended finance facilities to mobilize private finance to help the developing world access climate finance, saying the money was there.
“We need blended finance facilities that don’t mobilize fractions of private capital for the public dollar but multiples … in double digits. There are facilities that are being developed that can do this, we need to scale them dramatically,” he said.
“The money is here but that money needs net zero aligned projects and there’s a way to turn this into a very, very powerful virtuous circle and that’s the challenge.
– Reuters
5:30 a.m. ET
Britain’s Sunak pledges to ‘rewire’ global finance system for net zero
British finance minister Rishi Sunak pledged on Wednesday to “rewire” the global financial system for net zero, saying London will also commit 100 million pounds ($136.19 million) to make climate finance more accessible to developing countries.
Outlining Britain’s strategy over the next five years to the United Nations COP26 climate summit, he said in addition to the 100 million pounds, London would also support a new capital markets mechanism to issue billions of new green bonds.
“Six years ago Paris set the ambition, today in Glasgow we are provided the investment we need to deliver that ambition,” he told an audience in Glasgow.
– Reuters
5:00 a.m. ET
U.S. backs new effort to issue green bonds
The United States on Wednesday announced its support for a new capital market mechanism that will issue investment-grade bonds and raise significant new finance for scaling clean energy and sustainable infrastructure in emerging economies.
Underscoring the urgency of acting to stop global warming, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the COP26 climate conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow that the United States would join Britain in backing the Climate Investment Funds’ (CIF) new Capital Market Mechanism and its innovative leveraging structure.
She said the initiative would help attract significant new private climate funds and provide $500 million per year for the CIF’s Clean Technology Fund, as well as its new Accelerating Coal Transition investment program.
– Reuters
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Opinion and analysis
Campbell Clark: After COP26 climate conference, the carbon trade war will inch closer
Gary Mason: Steven Guilbeault is the right environment minister for our times
Tens of thousands of people from world leaders to climate protesters are in Glasgow for COP26. Adam Radwanski, The Globe’s climate change columnist, says the size and attention around the summit makes it harder to leave without meaningful agreements on climate action.
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Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
Dr. Julio Montaner said the construction of Vancouver’s first indoor supervised site for people who inhale drugs comes as the percentage of people who die from smoking drugs continues to climb.
The location in the Downtown Eastside at the Hope to Health Research and Innovation Centre was unveiled Wednesday after construction was complete, and Montaner said people could start using the specialized rooms in a matter of weeks after final approvals from the city and federal government.
“If we don’t create mechanisms for these individuals to be able to use safely and engage with the medical system, and generate points of entry into the medical system, we will never be able to solve the problem,” he said.
“Now, I’m not here to tell you that we will fix it tomorrow, but denying it or ignoring it, or throw it under the bus, or under the carpet is no way to fix it, so we need to take proactive action.”
Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.
The centre has been running a supervised injection site for years which sees more than a thousand people monthly and last month resuscitated five people who were overdosing.
The new facilities offer indoor, individual, negative-pressure rooms that allow fresh air to circulate and can clear out smoke in 30 to 60 seconds while users are monitored by trained nurses.
Advocates calling for more supervised inhalation sites have previously said the rules for setting up sites are overly complicated at a time when the province is facing an overdose crisis.
More than 15,000 people have died of overdoses since the public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016.
Kate Salters, a senior researcher at the centre, said they worked with mechanical and chemical engineers to make sure the site is up to code and abidies by the highest standard of occupational health and safety.
“This is just another tool in our tool box to make sure that we’re offering life-saving services to those who are using drugs,” she said.
Montaner acknowledged the process to get the site up and running took “an inordinate amount of time,” but said the centre worked hard to follow all regulations.
“We feel that doing this right, with appropriate scientific background, in a medically supervised environment, etc, etc, allows us to derive the data that ultimately will be sufficiently convincing for not just our leaders, but also the leaders across the country and across the world, to embrace the strategies that we are trying to develop.” he said.
Montaner said building the facility was possible thanks to a single $4-million donation from a longtime supporter.
Construction finished with less than a week before the launch of the next provincial election campaign and within a year of the next federal election.
Montaner said he is concerned about “some of the things that have been said publicly by some of the political leaders in the province and in the country.”
“We want to bring awareness to the people that this is a serious undertaking. This is a very massive investment, and we need to protect it for the benefit of people who are unfortunately drug dependent.” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
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