Corporate Knights

The nuclear option In the fall issue of Corporate Knights, Ralph Torrie comments that “the homeowner should not finance … the next power plant.” I totally disagree. The homeowner and all taxpayers should finance nuclear power plants so that all coal [plants] and gas stations can be shut down. Remember that, when you say the government should do it, where do you think the government gets its revenue from? –Garry MacLeod, Oakville, ON CK: The consumer/homeowner pays for everything in the long run (including nuclear plant cost overruns), but that is not the same as financing the projects. When it comes to megaprojects, there are long-established systems in place for financing them so that when we flick the switch or squeeze the pump handle, the cost per kilowatt-hour or litre is manageable. We…

In the past two months, I swam in two of the most beautiful places on our planet. In the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, I snorkelled with giant sea turtles alongside bleached coral reefs and explored parts of a 180-kilometre semicircle of cenotes, majestic underground caves filled with azure water that the Maya believed was a gateway to the underworld. The cenotes formed around the impact zone of a colossal 10-kilometre-wide asteroid that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago. The impact set off mega-tsunamis and ignited fires that blazed through an estimated 70% of the world’s forests. All told, scientists reckon it killed off 75% of all life on Earth. In the Red Sea off the coast of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the recent UN global climate talks were held, I was blown…

In the exhibit hall of COP15 in Montreal, a five-foot sculpture of a seedling rose and fell in accordance with data charting the success or failure of negotiations at the UN biodiversity summit. Much was at stake as discussions got underway at the long-awaited two-week conference, originally scheduled to take place in China two years ago. But as Cambodian delegate Nath Pang put it, there was hope in the air too. On COP15’s opening day, Pang listened to Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault explain Canada’s main goals for the conference: get the parties to agree to a target of 30% protection of biodiversity by 2030 (120 of 196 attending countries had already committed to this “30x30” goal); reverse biodiversity loss by 2030; provide funding for developing countries, like Pang’s, to ensure…

COP27 delivered a big win wrapped in epic failure. After November’s climate summit talks ran into overtime, with water and air conditioning in Sharm el-Sheikh growing scarce, negotiators landed a victory: wealthy nations agreed to set up a loss-and-damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable recover and rebuild from the worst climate disasters. “We have struggled for 30 years on this path,” said Pakistan Climate Minister Sherry Rehman, who saw a third of her country devastated by flooding last year. “The establishment of a fund is not about dispensing charity. It is clearly a down payment on the longer investment in our joint futures.” But the talks left some diplomats questioning the integrity of Egypt’s COP27 presidency, the Financial Times reported, with negotiating teams given insufficient time to review crucial decision text…

In November, economist Chris Waller told a business luncheon in Phoenix, Arizona, that the U.S. economy should continue to grow only slowly in 2023. Normally that would be a bad thing, he said, “but not now.” To Waller, a governor of the Federal Reserve that sets U.S. monetary policy, glacial growth is proof that the Fed’s efforts to tame inflation are working. “Our goal is to rein in demand,” he said, noting that the Fed’s higher interest rates had already dampened consumer spending, slowed home sales and shaken up the tight job market. By mid-2022, the labour shortage had driven annual wage growth above 10% for the first time in 40 years. Canada has shown similar steel as the annual inflation rate jumped from 1% in early 2021 to 8% by mid-2022.…

With war raging in Ukraine and European imports of Russian natural gas down by 80% to 90%, the continent is bracing for along, cold winter. Wholesale gas and electricity prices soared as much as 15-fold since early 2021, and Europe is now fearing even higher energy costs – and possibly a recession. To head off disaster, Europe bought up as much liquefied natural gas as it could from the U.S., Qatar and other countries, at an exorbitant price, of course. And European governments have introduced waves of new policies ranging from price caps, tariffs and subsidies for energy-intensive companies to new incentives for reducing consumption or producing new energy. But most of these are stopgap solutions. In the longer term, Europe will have no choice but to truly accelerate the clean energy…