LIA MAZZOLINI: Canada’s position in the Kyoto Protocol remains unknown, after rumours suggesting the country is withdrawing its membership.

Environment Minister, Peter Kent refused to comment on whether Canada would continue its inclusion with the international environmental treaty, at the Durban Conference this past week. Kent criticizes the protocol for being unrealistic and points to countries of emerging markets like China to take on more responsibility.

China’s lead negotiator, Su Wei slams Canada for being a “bad example” for being secretive of it’s standing with the treaty.

Kent has also said that there was an urgency to addressing climate change, but there isn’t a need for a “binding convention.” Instead, he said there was a need for “action and a mandate to work on an eventual binding convention,” sometime before 2020.

However, scientists and government from around the world agree that humans are within years of reaching a tipping point of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. After exceeding the threshold, it could cause irreversible damage to the global economy and ecosystems. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: A report recently released by the Crown Land Task Force, chaired by Norm Betts, former PC Finance Minister and current University of New Brunswick professor, forecasts five years of dissatisfaction for both forestry companies and environmentalists.

The report illuminates a coming low point in the timbre harvest. It suggests that, within in next five-year regulatory cycle, the silviculture work won’t be in a place where companies could safely reap its benefits, predicting a slump in the industry until available wood catches up to its projected targets.

Betts and the others involved in this report have evaded recommending an amount for the allowable cut, leaving that controversial decision to the province. Betts also called for the involvement of an arm’s-length organization to maximize the value of New Brunswick’s forests, serving the double purpose of relieving some of the political and lobbyist pressure on representatives in the region.

Bruce Northrup, Natural Resources Minister, hopes to put a stay on the already-delayed final decision of the annual allowable cut until the report on private woodlots is released sometime in January 2012. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI: An Ontario administrator blasts the government for budget cuts of ministries that are in charge of protecting the environment.

Environmental commissioner, Gord Miller made his disproval of the Conservatives’ actions in his annual report, Engaging Solutions released, Tuesday November 29.

He says that the environment ministry receives 45 per cent operation budget decline, from 1992 . He also adds that the natural resources ministry has also seen a 22 per cent loss in funding.

But Environment Minister, Jim Bradley says the commissioner’s facts are wrong. Bradley claims the Liberals increased the budget by 42 per cent in 2003, when they were in power. He sides with the opposition wanting to take the provincial portion, of the harmonized sales tax off home heating as an answer to improve funding for environmental causes.

Miller suggests putting a tax on landfills akin to what some European countries do.

Progressive Conservative environment critic, Michael Harris, says that’s too much of a burden for taxpayers, but agrees that the province needs better solutions for its waste. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: This past Tuesday, Manitoba Wildlands and the Manitoba Environmental Industries Association announced their recommendation that the province create an environmental commissioner’s office.

This announcement follows a report from Ontario’s environment commissioner Gord Miller that criticized the environmental record of an often unnoticed province. Of particular note was the amount of recyclables that are relegated to landfills and the malleability of Manitoba’s legislators to environmental critics calling for increased studies as opposed to concrete action.

The creation of an independent watchdog to hold the province accountable and probe it’s environmental problems without political motivation, is deemed necessary by the group’s report.

As it stands, Manitoba does have the Clean Environment Commission (who can only stage probes at the environmental minister’s request) as well as the Manitoba Round Table on Environment and Economy, which is an advisory panel considerably populated by government ministers and suffers from a lack of resources and transparency. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI: Alberta’s tarsands have been quietly receiving support from the UK government, which has recently been brought to light. Both Brittan and Canada are fighting a European proposal that would officially tag the oil sands as 22 per cent dirtier than conventional sources.

According to a source, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Canada privately that the UK wants “to work with Canada on finding a way forward.”

Foreign Secretary William Hague offered support to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government in September in opposing the proposal.

Managing Director, Jeffrey Sundquist, for the Government of Alberta’s U.K. office, says the European proposal is discriminatory. He claims it turns a blind eye to other crudes that have high or higher greenhouse gases that enter the eurozone.

As of Sunday, November 27, Greenpeace has been running a campaign to spread the awareness of the UK, Canada tie to the oil sands. Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, John Sauven, says it’s troubling to know that huge oil industry lobbying is present without the knowledge or consent of the public. [ index ]

CARA CHELLEW: Days of protests in Peru this week has led to a delay in the construction of a 4.8 billion dollar gold mine in the northern part of the country. Colorado based mining company, Newmont has halted the Conga project, an expansion of Latin America’s biggest gold mine due to protests that left 10 people injured. Opponents fear the project will cause pollution and destroy water supplies because the project involves moving water from four mountain lakes into contructed reservoirs.

Newmont claims it has undergone consultations with the community and will adhere to strict environmental standards. Peru’s deputy environment minister resigned on Monday, calling official environmental impact studies on the project “weak, outdated and lacking in credibility. [ index ]

CARA CHELLEW: Norway is under fire for investing in Indonesian firms that profit through environmental degradation. In recent years the country has been a leading financier of tropical forest conservation but the country’s pension fund has also invested in at least 13 companies associated with Indonesian deforestation.

The UK based Environmental Investigation Agency says the 30 million dollars Norway provided last year for reforestation is a only fifth of the profits the pension fund has accumulated through unethical investments. Environmental groups suggests, better pension fund management is needed in order to align investment practices with social policy. [ index ]

CARA CHELLEW: Officials are testing Colorado’s South Platte River after a leak had been discovered in an oil pipeline operated by tar sands producer Suncor. A fisherman discovered petroluem in the river on Sunday which is a major source of water for Colorado and the Midwest. Levels of benzene and volatile organic compounds in the water also forced a partial closure of Denver’s wastewater pant.

Three small booms were errected Wednesday on the bank of Sand Creek which appear to be containing the spill and preventing further contamination. The extent of the contamination is still unclear and it is unknown if the spill contained hard to clean tar sands diluted bitumen. [ index ]