Montreal, Canada – Environmental rights groups have cautiously welcomed a new agreement between the German and Canadian governments to begin shipping hydrogen across the Atlantic as early as 2025, as the two countries shift towards more renewable energy.
The Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance, announced this week following meetings in Canada between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, comes as Europe tries to wean itself off Russian energy amid the war in Ukraine.
“The Hydrogen Alliance between Canada and Germany is a significant milestone as we accelerate the international market rollout of green hydrogen and clear the way for new transatlantic cooperation,” Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice-chancellor, said in a statement on Tuesday.
That same day, Canadian green energy company EverWind also said it had reached a deal with Germany-based firm Uniper to export “green ammonia” derived from hydrogen from a partly wind-powered facility that is under construction in Nova Scotia, on Canada’s east coast.
“This alliance and the project deal that came with [Scholz’s] visit send a signal that another way is possible and desirable to achieve energy security,” Caroline Brouillette, national policy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, told Al Jazeera in an interview.
“That is, accelerate the transition to renewable-based energy.”
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Push for LNG
Scholz, the German chancellor, has been trying to secure alternative energy sources amid threats from Moscow, angered by international sanctions over its offensive in Ukraine, that it will shut the taps on Russian gas flows to Europe. The European Union (EU) got approximately 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia last year, and concerns are rising that the bloc could experience power shortages during the colder winter months.
Almost since the very start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Canada – the world’s fifth-largest natural gas producer – faced calls from energy companies and pro-oil lawmakers to ramp up energy exports to help its allies in Europe. In March, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Ottawa would increase oil and gas production this year by up to 300,000 barrels per day to address the “energy security crisis”.
But Germany also had urged Canada to increase exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe specifically, something Scholz reiterated this week amid the green energy deals, saying he still hoped Ottawa would supply more. Trudeau threw cold water on that prospect on Monday, telling reporters that Canada needed a “business case” for it due to infrastructure and financial hurdles.
“Trudeau is wasting the opportunity of a generation, saying NO to billions of $, NO to more paycheques for our people, NO to energy security for us & our allies,” legislator Pierre Poilievre, a frontrunner in the race to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, tweeted. “As PM, I’ll scrap his anti-energy laws & champion Canadian energy.”
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Yet Canada does not have any functioning LNG export facilities, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development think-tank recently said that with Europe needing supplies now, “this results in a fundamental mismatch. Canada cannot ramp up supply before 2025, while Europe’s energy needs will largely be resolved by that time.”
“It’s clear that the war in Ukraine is going to accelerate the transition off of fossil fuels. Energy security now means renewable energy,” said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada, who welcomed the announcements this week as “a part of that transition”.
“It’s good to see because we’re recognising that there is opportunity in this new economy and that we actually have concrete proposals moving forward,” Stewart told Al Jazeera. “It’s no longer dreams put out there by Greenpeace; it’s the German chancellor and the prime minister standing there, talking about how they’re going to harness the wind to help provide the energy services we need.”
Focus on ‘green hydrogen’
But environmental activists also say the devil will be in the details of the Germany-Canada Hydrogen Alliance’s implementation.
Canada and Germany currently do not share the same definition of “clean hydrogen” – the term used in a Canadian government statement outlining the deal, explained Brouillette. “The German definition and preference is for green hydrogen, which is basically made from energy produced from renewables,” she told Al Jazeera, while Canada is talking about a mix of green hydrogen and “blue hydrogen”, a term used for hydrogen produced from natural gas.
Since blue hydrogen production creates carbon emissions – which are then captured and stored – Brouillette said the Canadian position “kind of gives cover for continued fossil – in this case, gas – production, rather than transitioning to sources of energy that we know across the life cycle are less [damaging] to the climate”.
Amid meetings with Germany’s chancellor this week in Canada, Trudeau said Ottawa would need a ‘business case’ to boost LNG exports to Europe [File: Andreas Rinke/Reuters]
Sascha Muller-Kraenner, federal executive director of Environmental Action Germany, said in a statement that a focus on green hydrogen is critical and urged Germany to “not give in here”. “Canada is keeping the door open for the production of fossil-based hydrogen … We can only warn the Canadian government not to rely on the export of these extremely climate-damaging energy sources for its future economic development,” Muller-Kraenner said.
Rights advocates also stressed that any major project, including those producing renewable energy, must respect Indigenous rights and have buy-in from local communities. “Making sure that it’s done right is important,” said Stewart.
“I think seeing international cooperation to accelerate an energy transition is a big deal,” he added.
“[On] the global scale of things, this is a small part of the solution, but we need lots of these types of solutions all around the world. And the more that we see them coming to reality, the more we can imagine that future.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
