DARYN CAISTER: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the Canadian government would be offering India access to its more than 2,600 environmental technology firms. The announcement was made just as the premier was leaving for a week long “Clean Technology Trade Mission” to India, particularly to Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, has been seeking out so called clean tech trading deals for his country as a way to combat climate change and improve his own economy. Premier McGuinty has been eager to oblige him, saying that Ontario would play a major role the future of India’s economy, and see’s the meeting as a beginning of a closer trading relationship of technology and manufacturing. Mr. McGuinty has been working hard to promote Ontario on the global stage as a leader in many clean technologies, such as water treatment, air pollution mitigation, site and brownfield remediation, green building and renewable energy. The trade mission will include more than 100 Ontarians, representing 26 companies, universities and other organizations. The delegation will also include Sandra Pupatello the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Harinder Takhar, Minister of Consumer Services and several Members of Parliament. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Dutch government was temporarily stymied earlier this week in their plan from bringing hundreds of bikes to Vancouver to promote bicycle transportation as a healthy alternative during the 2010 Winter olympic games. They have since negotiated with the Canadian Border Services Agency and found a way to bring the bikes to Canada, though with a caveat. The original plan was for the Dutch government to import 450 bikes, purchased by the Netherland’s national railway, to be available outside Heineken House, the Dutch hospitality centre at the Olympics. After the Olympics, all bikes would be donated to a local charity in the Vancouver area. However, doing so would have required the Dutch government to pay import duties which would have represented more than a two-fold increase in cost – a price that the Dutch government had deemed too expensive. Further talks between the Dutch and Canadian Border Services Agency resulted in a compromise whereby 425 bikes will be able to be imported into Canada with minimal import duties, with only 25 bikes to be donated to local charities after the finish of the Olympic games.This all became an issue in the context of new regulations introduced for the games that will allow sporting goods to be brought into the country free of import taxes provided the equipment is exported after the competition. The Netherland’s, a country known for its high proportion of bicycling citizenry, wants to draw attention to the sustainable and healthy benefits of bicycle transportation. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Population density is increasing rapidly around Ontario’s nuclear facilities, says new data published in the Toronto Star newspaper this week. Population density within the 10 km safety fallback range of the Pickering B reactors have almost quadrupled since 1974 from 25,000 to more than 95,000 today and is expected to rise to more than 132,000 by 2013. Focus on the population issues around Ontario’s reactors comes as the government is considering retrofits to several of its reactors as the old plants start to reach the end of their safe use lives over the next 3 – 5 years. Former president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Linda Keen said that the rate of population growth around Pickering isn’t being taken seriously enough. Pickering, as well as neighbouring Ajax is expected to lead the nation is residential growth over the next 10 to 20 years. Should an emergency occur, authorities report that it would require the evacuation of more than 240,000 people as well as 2,800 reactor staff in as little as 24 hours. Canada is also possibly the only country in the world with as many reactors all on one site, one estimate said that most plants in the US and Europe have 1 or 2 reactors per site, Pickering has 6. Linda Keen ordered a study of nuclear plant buffer zones before being fired in 2007 due to political issues around her closing of the chalk river nuclear plant due to safety concerns, a call which was later defended by many industry experts who have come to her defence. The studies have yet to be completed two years later. When asked CNSC spokesman said that the agency has not preceded, due to “competing priorities”. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: It has taken more than 160 years, but Toronto finally did it…passed into December without any observed snow-fall. Since the country’s oldest weather observation station began recording snow-fall measurements in 1847, there has not passed a single year in which Torontonians have enjoyed a snow-free autumn up until December. This record was set just in time, as Pearson airport reported traces of snow at 3am on Tuesday morning, only hours after the calendar flipped over from November to December. Senior Climatologist for Environment Canada Dave Phillips told the Toronto Star to not make any predictions from the unseasonably warm and dry fall as typically only 8 percent of the average snowfall comes in October and November and Weather is inherently chaotic. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A new poll out this week shows that about 65% of Canadians now see the impacts of climate change as the planet’s defining crisis. The poll was carried out by Harris-Decima research on behalf of Munk Debates. The poll involved more than 1000 people from across the country and was commissioned for the purpose of framing a debate to be held this week at the University of Toronto on climate change. The main question of the poll was to agree or disagree with the statement “Climate change is mankind’s defining crisis, and demands a commensurate response”, which is the resolution that will be debated in Toronto. Agreement with this statement was highest in Quebec and Atlantic provinces, while disagreement was highest in the prairies, particularly Alberta and Manitoba. Female respondents polled slightly higher with a 67% agreement with men polling at 63%. The main questions was asked followed by several other more specific questions designed to test the agreement with the main talking points of both the pro and anti climate change action positions. This included questions such as whether dealing with climate change was a moral issues about future generations which resulted in strong agreement, and whether respondents thought humans would be able to adapt to climate change to which about 65% agreed. After all the other questions were asked, respondents were asked to respond to the original proposition once more, and the posters found little change in the original answers. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS:  The Globe and Mail reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has rejected U.N. calls for his government to adopt more stringent CO2 emission targets. Instead Mr. Harper said that Canada plans only “minor adjustments” to its commitments heading into the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Mr. Harper argued that Canada’s targets are on par with the United States over the period to 2020, and that Canada must synchronize its emissions reductions with the United States so that Canada does not risk driving away business investment south of the border. Currently, Canada has pledged to lower its emissions by 20% below 2006 levels by 2020, and 60-70% by 2050. The U.s. has pledged a 17% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, and a 80% reduction by 2050. However, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has implored Ottawa to set more more aggressive targets by 2050. Quoting Mr. Ban, “Many countries, developed and developing countries, have come out with ambitious targets. Canada is going to soon chair the G8 and therefore it is only natural that Canada should come out with ambitious mid-term targets”. Canada has agreed to contribute to a $10 billion fund to help developing countries mitigate the adverse affects of climate change. A hoped for political trade-off of this action is that poorer Commonwealth countries might support the Commonwealth’s statement in support of climate change. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A new report entitled “Natural credit: Estimating the Value of Natural Capital in the Credit River Watershed” finds that the watershed provides more than $370 million dollars in free ecological services. The audit was carried out by the Pembina Institute and Credit Valley Conservation earlier this year. The report describes “ecological services” as being the dollar value of reproducing by human made means the functions and services of nature. The report found that in the category of water and wastewater treatment along, replacing the ecological functions of the watershed alone would cost an estimated $237 million dollars a year. The report was compiled to help citizens understand the complex relationship that often goes under-appreciated by a lack of awareness that out natural resources provide for Canadian cities and culture. Mike Kennedy, Senior Resource Economist for the Pembina Institute said this week that because the value of these natural systems are for the most part treated as external costs, they don’t show up in anyone’s accounting, and therefore natural systems are frequently used in un sustainable and inefficient ways. Mr. Kennedy also stressed that while this report only covers this one watershed, the results are likely to be similar across Canada, in fact likely much higher in other areas. Jeff Wilson from Credit Valley Conservation stressed in an interview this week following the report’s release that he saw increasing evidence that the benefits, including economic ones of conservation are being understood to far out way business-as-usual development. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Ontario Government has released new guidelines for how compost should be classified, managed, and used following an investigative report by the Toronto Star earlier this year. The 134-page document includes rules on what makes good compost, and a compost grading system: “AA” grade compost – for use in gardens, “A” grade compost – compost which needs to be mixed with soil, and “B” grade compost – suitable only for landfill or roadside cover. Environment Minister John Gerretsen is quoted in the Toronto Star, saying “It is a major change, and it is high time we did it. What we are interested in now is the output – whether the product that comes out can actually be used for compostable material or not. That is our main goal.” Proposed rules include a warning to cities that allow plastic bags and diapers to be disposed of in green bins. Plastic bags and diapers were originally allowed in order to encourage use of the green bin program. However, special facilities are required to remove these items from compost, and the experts are skeptical about whether these facilities work well enough. Although Toronto’s general manager of solid wast management services Geoff Rathbone has maintained that Toronto only produces the equivalnet of grade “AA” and “A” compost, laboratory tests done at the behest of the Toronto Star investigative report found that samples of compost were unfinished, indicative of compost that had been rushed through the composting process. The sodium content in the samples was also found to be very high. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Professor Phil Jones, the director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, announced this week that he would step down from his position until an investigation into the scientific conduct of the research unit is complete. The university commissioned an independent review following an incident last month in which data containing e-mail correspondence between climate scientists from the UK and the US was stolen from the university’s servers. Text from some of those e-mails has been seized upon by climate-change skeptics as evidence that scientists colluded to alter data in order to support climate change theory. Professor Jones has contested these allegations, saying that quotes from the stolen e-mails are being placed out of context and that no scientific fraud has taken place. Explaining his decision to step down, Professor Jones stated that he stepped aside to ensure that the Climatic Research Unit is able to continue to do “world-leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible.” [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: A bill to introduce a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions in Australia was voted down this week by the country’s senate. The government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had hoped to pass the legislation, which would create an Emissions Trading Scheme, before next week’s UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen. The bill would have introduced a system which would place limits on carbon emissions from industries, but whose limits could be adjusted by buying and selling carbon emission credits. The bill was voted down in the senate, where the Prime Minister’s Labor Party does not have a majority, by a vote of 41-33. Australia has one of the world’s highest per-capita CO2 emissions due to its dependence on coal. Ahead of the Copenhagen conference, the Australian government had proposed reducing its CO2 emissions by up to 25% below 2000 levels by 2020, a proposal which would have been helped by an Emissions Trading Scheme. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has stated that the government will introduce the bill again next year in the hopes of getting it passed.” [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: This Thursday, December 3rd, marked the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal Chemical Spill, in which tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate gas were released from a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal India. An estimated 3,000 people were killed in the initial incident, and 15,000 people have died since due to effects from exposure to the spill. The event was marked in Bhopal by protests from residents who believe that chemicals from the now-derelict chemical plant continue to leak into the surrounding area. The government of Madhya Pradesh State, where Bhopal is located, insists that the site is clean and that the local water supply is safe. This contradicts a recent report from the BBC, which had water from a well near the site tested, revealing that it contained 1,000 times the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum amount of carbon tetrachloride, a known carcinogen. Residents claim that to this day they continue to see the effects of pollutants from the plant, and complain that neither their government nor Dow Chemical, the company which purchased Union Carbide 10 years ago, have done enough to help them. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Earlier this month, Spain set a national record for wind-generated energy, when wind turbines provided 53% of the country’s energy over a period of several hours according to official estimates. During a period of particularly high winds in numerous parts of the country, wind turbines generated 11.5 gigawatts of power, enough to supply over half of Spain’s energy demand. Though this occurred on a Sunday, when energy demand is lower than during the week, the record is encouraging for renewable energy advocates in the country, which hopes to have renewable sources account for a quarter of its energy production by the end of the year. [ index ]