CANADA NEEDS A STRONG BAN ON SINGLE-USE PLASTICS-Call on the government to act now
STOP PLASTIC POLLUTION CANADA NEEDS A STRONG BAN ON SINGLE-USE PLASTICS Call on the government to act now Canada is a disproportionately large contributor to the growing global plastic disaster, according to the report, Drowning in Plastic: Ending Canada’s contribution to the global plastic disaster. Drowning in Plastic shows that Canada is a plastic nation: Although Canadians make up less than 0.5 per cent of the global population, we use 1.4 per cent of all plastic produced. Canada currently uses 4.6 million tonnes of plastics every year — roughly 125 kilograms per person. In 2010, Canada produced nine times more plastic waste per person than India, up to 3.6 times more than some countries in Southeast Asia and up to twice that of some Scandinavian countries Between 1988 – 2016 Canada shipped almost four million tonnes of plastics abroad mostly to Asian countries. Approximately half of all plastic discarded in Canada is single-use. The Canadian federal government made a commitment to tackle this disaster by banning harmful and unnecessary single-use plastic by 2021. Oceana Canada is calling for immediate action on the ban to end the plastic disaster and help save our oceans from this growing crisis. Source: https://oceana.ca/en/reports/drowning-plastic/
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Canada confirms its support for the Global Methane Pledge and announces ambitious domestic actions to slash methane emissions
October 11, 2021 – Vancouver, British Columbia Methane is responsible for around 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date and half a million premature deaths globally each year. It also accounts for about 13 percent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Slashing emissions from methane is one of the fastest and lowest cost ways to fight climate change and is one of the top recommendations made by climate scientists in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. During today’s Global Methane Pledge Ministerial Meeting, co-chaired by the United States and the European Union, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced Canada’s support for the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. In support of the Pledge and the goals in Canada’s climate plan, Minister Wilkinson also announced Canada’s commitment to developing a plan to reduce methane emissions across the broader Canadian economy and to reducing oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75 percent below 2012 levels by 2030. Canada is the first and only country to support the Pledge and the 75 percent goal, and our approach will include regulations. Moving forward, Canada will mobilize and work with the energy sector, provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, and other stakeholders in developing our approach. The International Energy Agency has made it clear that curbing methane emissions from oil and gas operations represents one of the best near-term opportunities for limiting the worst impacts of climate change and has called on countries and companies to reduce methane emissions from the sector by 75% below 2012 levels by 2030. At the Meeting, the Minister noted the importance of the 75% goal and called on other oil-producing nations to join Canada in adopting it. The commitments announced today build on Canada’s existing actions to curb methane emissions. In 2016, Canada set a target of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40–45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025 and has put in place regulations to help achieve it, making it one of the first countries in the world to regulate methane emissions from the oil and gas sector at the national level. Achieving this 2025 goal is an important part of the Government’s efforts to meet its new Nationally Determined Contribution of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40–45 percent by 2030. Last year, the Government also launched the Emissions Reduction Fund, which will, in part, achieve methane reductions beyond those prescribed in the federal regulations. Globally, agriculture and landfills are among the largest sources of methane emissions. The 2030 objective in the Pledge is expected to help prevent over 20 million tonnes of crop losses a year by 2030 by reducing ground-level ozone pollution, caused in part by methane. The Government of Canada is committed to supporting Canadian farmers and industry partners who are taking action to reduce emissions, sequester carbon and make their operations more sustainable, productive and competitive. This includes through investments in new programs, such as the Agricultural Climate Solutions initiative and the Agricultural Clean Technology Program, which aim to help farmers adopt new, beneficial management practices and clean technologies to boost productivity and lower emissions—including from methane. The Government is also committed to developing an approach to increase the number of landfills that collect and treat methane, and ensure existing systems capture as many methane emissions as possible. Internationally, Canada has played a leading role and is an active participant in global initiatives to reduce methane emissions, including as Chair of the Global Methane Initiative, and as a founding partner in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the Arctic Council. Moving forward, Canada will work with the United States, the European Union, and other early supporters of the Global Methane Pledge to encourage additional countries to support the Pledge and commit to ambitious action on methane. The Government will also continue to encourage other oil-producing nations to commit to its 2030 goal of reducing methane emissions from oil and gas by 75 percent below 2012 levels, and will work with partners to deliver on its existing and new commitments to slash methane emissions and fight climate change. Quotes “This is a critical year for climate action and Canada is proud to be among the early supporters of the Global Methane Pledge, a critical initiative that will increase global action to fight climate change. Climate change is accelerating, and Canadians expect ambitious action to address it. That means doing the hard work at home to set ambitious goals and develop concrete plans to get there. It also means working with international partners to increase the scope and scale of climate action around the world. Today’s announcement, coupled with Canada’s existing efforts to slash methane emissions and fight climate change, will bring us another step closer to securing a healthier planet and economy for decades to come.” – The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change “Combatting climate change means tackling methane, and that’s what the Global Methane Pledge does. Canada’s oil and gas workers have the skills, ingenuity and determination to get it done, so we’re working with the provinces and territories to put those workers front and centre. They’re the ones who’ll get the job done.” – The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources “A healthy environment goes hand-in-hand with a sustainable agriculture sector that continues to provide good jobs and healthy food for Canadians. Canada’s farmers and ranchers are good stewards of the land, and have made significant progress increasing production while lowering methane emissions. Our government will continue to help farmers adopt agricultural management practices and clean technologies to support sustainability and reduce emissions.” – The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Quick facts Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and short-lived climate pollutant that has eighty‑six times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a twenty-year period after being released into the atmosphere. According to the Global Methane Assessment from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the United Nations Environment Programme, reducing methane emissions by 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030 can prevent over 200,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma-related emergency room visits, and over 20 million tonnes of crop losses a year by 2030 by reducing ground-level ozone pollution caused in part by methane. Methane accounts for 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, principally from the energy, agriculture, and waste sectors. The Global Methane Pledge is an initiative to reduce global methane emissions that will be launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. On October 7, 2021, the International Energy Agency released a report on the need for countries and companies to commit to reducing methane emissions from fossil fuel operations by 75 percent below 2012 levels by 2030. The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 roadmap, released earlier this year, also envisions the 75 percent reduction. Canada is the first and only country to support the Global Methane Pledge and the 75 percent goal. Source: Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2021/10/canada-confirms-its-support-for-the-global-methane-pledge-and-announces-ambitious-domestic-actions-to-slash-methane-emissions.html
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Ozone layer ‘rescued’ from CFC damage
A steady decline in the levels of ozone-harming CFC chemicals in the atmosphere has resumed, scientists say. This follows a recent, dangerous pause in that downward trajectory, which could have slowed the healing of Earth's protective ozone layer. Atmospheric measurements published in 2018 pointed to illegal CFC production that was occurring in Eastern China. Stopping that production appears to have set the ozone layer's healing process back on track. The ozone layer is a thin part of the Earth's atmosphere that absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. When it is depleted, more of this UV radiation can reach the surface - causing potential harm to humans and other living things. Ultraviolet rays can damage DNA and cause sunburn, increasing the long-term risk of problems such as skin cancer. CFCs stand for chlorofluorocarbons. This family of chemicals has seen widespread use in refrigeration and as propellants in aerosol cans. Their role in destroying the ozone layer has been known since the 1980s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6pxSNDPhs The conclusions of a chemistry-based detective story, based on work carried out over several years by an international team of researchers, are published in two papers in the journal Nature. The first paper reveals that global emissions - of one particular type of CFC, trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) - decreased in 2019 at a rate that is consistent with the global ban on CFC production. That ban was put in place by the 1987 Montreal Protocol - an environmental treaty signed by almost every country that banned the production of these ozone-depleting chemicals from 2010. "Things seemed to be going to plan," explained Dr Luke Western, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Bristol. But in 2018, a study revealed that "the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere wasn't falling as quickly as we would expect". "That's where it all started - we wanted to know what was happening," said Dr Western. "The work I was involved in showed that this was primarily coming from East China." Much of the CFC-11 gas produced in Eastern China has been used in home insulation. Dr Western and his colleagues used data from air monitoring stations in South Korea and Japan. Further detective work in China by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) - and by environmental journalists - found that the chemical was being used in the majority of polyurethane insulation foam that was being produced by firms in the region. The scientists stressed that the scale of this illegal production may never be revealed in full. But this combination - of chemistry, investigative journalism and enforcement of the Montreal Protocol, the researchers say, has avoided significant delays to the healing of the ozone layer. "First we noticed that the pollution spikes in the region were falling, so likely the nearby polluters were stopping, or at least reducing, their emissions. "And then we saw that, in 2019, emissions had really fallen back to the levels we hadn't seen since before 2013, which is when we first saw this uptick." Researchers say the recovery of the ozone layer is now "back on track". "So later this century we should see recovery of the ozone layer back to levels that we saw in 1980," Dr Western added. Original story by By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News
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