Reuters: Canada to phase out high-emitting coal-fired energy plants

June 29th, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment
Photo: Arnold Paul
Photo: Arnold Paul
Canada announced last week that it will be issuing new standards that will require both new and aging energy plants to meet the same stringent greenhouse-gas emissions standard.

“Our regulation will be very clear,” Environment Minister Jim Prentice said at a press conference. “When each coal-burning unit reaches the end of its economic life, it will have to meet the new standards or close down. No trading, no offsets, no credits.”

Canada has 55 coal-burning energy plants. By 2025, 33 of these facilities will have reached the end of their economic lives. They will need to make costly upgrades to meet the anticipated new standards or be forced to shut down.

The new regulations are expected to become effective on July 1, 2015, according to an Environment Canada press release. Draft regulations should be issued early next year.

READ THIS STORY AT REUTERS.COM

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LA Times: G-20 climate pact erases word ‘voluntary’ from efforts to cut oil-firm subsidies

June 28th, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment

In a last-minute turn in global climate talks, international negotiators agreed over the weekend to adopt more ambitious plans than expected to trim government subsidies to oil companies worldwide, part of a broader effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Initial plans called for each of the 20 industrialized and emerging nations attending G-20 to take “voluntary” measures to cut production and consumption incentives. But privately under pressure from the Obama administration, the group now is preparing to sign an agreement that omits the word “voluntary.”

In any version, a summit communique has little real force of its own and is effective only according to how strictly nations decide to abide by its tenets.

Although not binding, the wording is significant to the parties, both as a reflection of the commitment of the world leaders and for its power to shape future conversations.

READ THIS STORY AT LATIMES.COM

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