Energy

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. All over the world, people are celebrating Earth Day in a myriad of ways, drawing attention to the ecological threats that plague the planet and what can be done to prevent this disaster. In Cochabamba Bolivia, for example, following the failure of the climate summit in Copenhagen last December, over 20,000 people from around the world have come together to chart a new course for climate justice and Mother Earth in a three-day assembly organized by the Bolivian government.

Results of an Angus Reid public opinion poll released on January 5th show that "Canadians are generally unhappy with the results of last month’s Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen."

The online survey of 1,013 Canadian adults also found that only 28 percent of respondents are content with Stephen Harper's leadership at the summit while almost half said they were dissatisfied with Harper’s performance at Copenhagen.

See full results of the poll here

John Vidal and Suzanne Goldenberg, December 14, 2009, The Guardian - One of the two negotiating tracks at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen broke up in drama and confusion today when the Africa group of countries followed by other developing countries accused the chair of the conference of trying to "kill" the Kyoto protocol. They were also objecting to what they characterised as efforts to sideline the poorest countries.

The crisis was then exacerbated after Australia said that rich countries should suspend talks about emission cuts.

The UN and the chair of the conference, Denmark, tried hurriedly to repair the rifts as ministers began to arrive in Copenhagen for the high level political section of the talks. But after the talks were suspended for two hours, observers said that it looked increasingly unlikely that an ambitious deal would now be negotiated by Friday.

Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail, December 10, 2009--The Harper Conservatives like to think they have healthy, hands-off approach to business: Let the markets weed out the good from the bad. It's a nice philosophy.

It's also one that's conveniently ignored by the Tories when they see fit. Case in point: At the stroke of a pen in the lead-up to the Copenhagen summit on climate change, the government's fiddling with one number, and one number only, instantly created a new list of potential industrial winners and losers.

John Vidal and Dan Milmo, The Guardian, December 9, 2009 - Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, responds to the leak of the 'Danish text'. Photograph: Jens Norgaard Larsen/EPA

Three hours after the "Danish text" had been leaked to the Guardian, Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, spelt out exactly why the poor countries he represents were so incensed. "The text robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal," said the diplomat.

John Vidal, The Guardian, December 8, 2009 - The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

William Marsden, The Montreal Gazette, December 4, 2009 - As world leaders gather in Copenhagen next week for historic negotiations on climate change, a fierce battle continues in Ottawa between environmental groups and a powerful army of energy, manufacturing and power utility lobbyists to influence Canadian legislation governing greenhouse gas emissions and billions of tax dollars in clean energy and emission-reduction subsidies.

These climate change lobbyists form one of the largest special interest groups on Parliament Hill, the Canadian public lobby registry shows. Since 1996, a total of 1,570 climate change lobbyists have pounded the halls of Parliament. Their client list has steadily increased since that year from just 13 to 109.

Oil and gas producers comprised the largest industry lobbying group from January through August 2009 with 24 companies and associations represented in Ottawa, according to the registry. These include all the major oil companies.