SUSTAINABILITY ARCHIVES
Fundamental Justice Issues at Stake in Gateway Pipeline Debate
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, comprising two 1,170 kilometre pipelines from northern Alberta across Indigenous lands to Kitimat, BC, would carry 525,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen from the tar sands to the west coast for export, and return 193,000 barrels of condensate (used to thin the bitumen) to Alberta each day, allowing the cycle to continue. This venture poses fundamental questions of social and ecological justice. … [Read more...]
Fate of Tar Sands Pipelines Crucial for Climate Justice
KAIROS' August 2011 paper outlines the key issues in the controversy over both the Gateway and Keystone pipelines. Both violate the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada has signed. There should be no further approvals of tar sands projects due to their projected carbon emissions, negative impacts on land and biodiversity and on the rights of Indigenous peoples. … [Read more...]
Congolese Elections—A Step Backward
While the African Union and neighbouring countries have accepted the results of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) recently held presidential and parliamentary elections, most national and international observers have said that the results were marred by substantial electoral irregularities and that the results lack credibility. KAIROS human rights partner in eastern DRC, Héritiers de la Justice (www.heritiersdelajustice.org), has joined with other civil society groups in asking that the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) transparently publish the results by voting stations and compilation centres in order to reassure the Congolese people. The DRC’s Supreme … [Read more...]
ELCIC letter to Minister Kent re. Canada’s withdrawal from Kyoto Protocol
The Rev. Susan C. Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), has written to Minister of the Environment Peter Kent expressing her disappointment and concern over the recent decision of the government to withdraw Canada from participating in the Kyoto Protocol. … [Read more...]
Kyoto Withdrawal Diminishes Canada
Environment Minister Peter Kent’s announcement of Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol not only tarnishes our international reputation but also betrays the efforts of the thousands of Canadians who worked long and hard for Canada to ratify the only legal agreement obliging countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the reasons provided for Canada’s pullout in Mr. Kent’s December 12th statement contain many distortions. Mr. Kent states that “Before this week, the Kyoto Protocol covered less than 30% of global emissions.” In reality, due to the fact that carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere for long periods of time, even hundreds of … [Read more...]
Policy Briefing Paper #30: Coal and Shale Gas Obstacles to Climate Justice
While much attention has focused on the tar sands as the fastest growing source of Canadian greenhouse gas emissions, climate justice demands that we also curb emissions from coal and shale gas. The most recent KAIROS briefing paper examines these two carbon-intensive energy sources, the dangers they pose and movements to curtail their use. … [Read more...]
Durban COP 17: Too Little, Too Late
Politicians are portraying the outcome of the Durban climate conference as a “success” because they have agreed to keep on talking in the hope of arriving at a legally binding pact by 2015 that would take effect in 2020. Climate scientists warn that if we do not act sooner than 2020, climate change is likely to become catastrophic and irreversible. Current greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction pledges have put the world on track for temperature increases of 2-5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. If global average temperatures rise by 3.5 to 5 degrees, they would increase between 7 and 8 degres in Africa, causing immense human suffering and ecological destruction. … [Read more...]
Too Little, Too Late
By John Dillon Politicians are portraying the outcome of the Durban climate conference as a “success” because they have agreed to keep on talking in the hope of arriving at a legally binding pact by 2015 that would take effect in 2020. Climate scientists warn that if we do not act sooner than 2020, climate change is likely to become catastrophic and irreversible. Current greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction pledges have put the world on track for temperature increases of 2-5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. If global average temperatures rise by 3.5 to 5 degrees, they would increase between 7 and 8 degres in Africa, causing immense human suffering and ecological … [Read more...]
Some final reflections
It’s the end of the second week of negotiations here in Durban. A fair number of official and civil society delegates have already returned home, as this is where political leaders are left to make final compromises. A total of some 14,570 people were accredited at the beginning of the COP. This doesn’t count those at the People’s Space at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College campus who were not accredited. I wonder what the CO2 equivalent carbon footprint would be, comparatively, of all the participants’ travel and accommodation, the mountains of paper produced (even with recycling), the security and local support staff and volunteers, and utility … [Read more...]
Backwards to Climate Chaos or Forwards to Climate Action?
By John Dillon Environment Minister Peter Kent wants out of the Kyoto Protocol (KP), which he describes as “ineffective and unfair because the major emerging economies [particularly China and India], still want to consider themselves ... to be developing countries.” China insists that developed countries must commit themselves to a new round of emission reductions under the KP before developing countries will make their own legally binding commitments to emission reductions. As Chinese vice-Minister Xie Zhenhua said in Durban on Sunday “If [parties to the UN climate convention] fail to conscientiously implement what we have agreed ... then how can we have political trust?” Who … [Read more...]
