Climate Change | Pembina Institute

 

CLIMATE CHANGE BLOG

External review affirms quality of UN-backed climate research, suggests changes

Yesterday the InterAcademy Council (IAC), a collaboration among the world's leading national science academies, issued its report on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the UN body mandated by governments to conduct regular, comprehensive assessments of the science of climate change.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had asked the IAC to conduct an independent review of IPCC processes and procedures after it emerged that the last major IPCC report contained a few errors in the section that projects future impacts of climate change. As numerous distinguished scientists have pointed out, these errors have no effect on the overwhelming evidence that the world is warming, that greenhouse gases from human activities are mostly to blame, and that we face severe global impacts if we don't act urgently to cut emissions. Yesterday's IAC report does not change that picture. read more...

Leading Thinkers Give Their Views on Sustainability

Thought leaders feel that a carbon tax, or a carbon tax with cap-and-trade, is the best approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cap-and-trade alone is not the best solution. 


Global Thought Leader SurveyThis is just one of the findings of The 2010 Global Thought Leader Survey on Sustainability, a groundbreaking survey of more than 5,000 sustainability thought leaders in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. The survey was commissioned by the Pembina Institute from McAllister Opinion Research.

Thought leaders from government, academia, industry, institutions and non-profit organizations completed the survey, which featured a core set of sustainability-related questions plus four specialized sections: climate change, sustainable energy, green economics and oil sands.

Learn more: Summary Report

Paul Martin (Part 3) Climate Change and the Global Conscience - Bring climate change to the G20

The 21st Prime Minister of Canada speaks with Pembina's David Dodge about climate change and the need for a global conscience. Martin called on George Bush and the U.S. to come to the table when the U.S. was thumbing its nose at climate change in 2005, now ironically he's calling on Canada to bring climate change to the table at the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto.

More in Pembina's 25th Anniversary Interview Series

Backgrounder: The state of climate science in light of recent claims

Cover of climate science backgrounder

Pembina's climate change analysts dug into the recent controversies around climate science to prepare a backgrounder looking carefully at the allegations linked to: 

  • the so-called "Climategate" incident;
  • the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) error concerning the rate of glacial melting in the Himalayas;
  • the IPCC's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report;
  • contentions that global warming is slowing down.

We concluded that the science of climate change remains very sound and defensible, while acknowledging the importance of transparency within the research community. Overall, our analysis found that the urgency of the issue and the case for action remains unchanged.

Download Backgrounder | Read Blog Post | Visit Web Page

Fact Sheet: Transforming Canada's Energy Economy

Solutions Fact Sheet - English

Canada needs a massive investment in clean energy technology to cut our GHG pollution. The solutions are at hand: more efficient vehicles and buildings, wind and solar power, and even carbon capture and storage have already been demonstrated on an industrial scale.

But Canada has not yet succeeded in dramatically accelerating investment in such technologies. Download our "Transforming Canada's Energy Economy" fact sheet to find out more about the policies it would take to move technologies like these out of the fringes and into the mainstream.

Download: English Fact Sheet | Version française

Economic Modelling Study for Canadian GHG Targets

 Climate Leadership cover

Climate Leadership, Economic Prosperity is the first Canadian study of its kind to show how reducing GHG emissions would affect employment and gross domestic product at the regional level. It also provides a comprehensive outline of policies that would enable Canada to meet both the federal government's current emissions target for 2020, and a more ambitious target derived from scientific analysis of the emission reductions needed to limit average global warming to 2°C.

With strong policies, Canada can meet a 2°C target in 2020 and have a strong, growing economy, a quality of life higher than Canadians enjoy today, and continued steady job creation across the country.

Download: English Report | Version française | Media Release | Technical Report

Our Fair Share: Canada's Role in Supporting Global Climate Solutions

 With countries racing to reach a new global climate deal by December, financial support for climate action in developing countries has emerged as an essential building block for a successful outcome. Based on current estimates of the costs of emission reductions and adaptation, Canada's contribution would be about C$2B to C$6B per year.

Canada is the world’s 8th largest emitter of GHG pollution and has the world’s 13th largest economy. This means we have both the responsibility and the capacity to support climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. Formulas for sharing the effort show that Canada’s “fair share” is about 3-4 per cent of the global total.

Download: Full Report | Fact Sheet | Slide Show