• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Canada’s Net-Zero Framework May Be Too Little, Too Late for the North

January 15, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes

Kai Boggild/Imaggeo

Kai Boggild/Imaggeo

6
SHARES
 

Empty rhetoric, ignorance, vested interests, and systemic racism—all persisting even as the climate crisis melts away the life-sustaining Arctic ice—may well mean that any achievement in Canada’s 2050 net-zero target will come too late for those who call the North home.

Making up 40% of Canada’s land mass and home to 100,000 mostly Indigenous people, the Canadian Arctic is a region in acute distress, writes iPolitics. And politicians, in particular, need to be doing more walking and less talking on climate action in the North.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

Unveiled shortly before the 2019 federal election, the Liberal Party’s 10-year, C$700-million Arctic and Northern Policy Framework promised a renaissance for Canada’s north, thanks to investment in communications, energy, research, and transportation. It also vowed to “face the effects of climate change and support healthy ecosystems in the Arctic and North,” and to “advance reconciliation and improve relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples,” recalls iPolitics.

And even then, the steep challenge would have been evident to the Liberals. The news story cites a 2019 federal report confirming the Arctic to be warming “at about three times the global average rate,” a terrifying change that was clearly “affecting the land, biodiversity, cultures, and tradition.”

As for what those government research dollars bought the Arctic and its peoples, well, the kindest word might be “incoherence.” Citing a November interview with Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal, iPolitics notes that even as Ottawa earmarks $550,000 to spend on two Nunavut data collection projects—planned, in the minister’s own words, to “better understand Canada’s coastal environment and how we can protect it”—it continues to explore “whether or not to lift a five-year moratorium on new oil and gas development in the North in 2021.” 

Transportation in the Arctic is certainly an urgent issue, said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). He told iPolitics that melting sea ice has made journeys “unpredictable, if not impossible,” a reality that makes activities like fishing and hunting very dangerous, if they can be done at all. “Many Canadians don’t understand how our homeland is in flux,” he said. 

As for energy investment in the North, Obed panned Ottawa’s effort to help the region go low-carbon, calling it contradictory in light of the government’s continued investment in fossil fuels there. 

“The south needs to get serious about climate change, and governments must do more,” said Obed, adding that Ottawa needs to translate its talk on reconciliation into meaningful action in the 51 communities ITK represents. His constituents face serious food insecurity, and lag far behind their counterparts in the south in access to quality health care, housing, and Internet connectivity. He said racism is largely to blame. 

Assessing the state of Canada’s climate ambitions, Andrew Chater of the London-based Polar Research and Policy Initiative said simply that the country is “not on track.” 

And even if the government achieves its net-zero goals by 2050? “This is too late for the North,” he told iPolitics.



in Arctic & Antarctica, Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Climate & Society, Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Community Climate Finance, First Peoples, Food Security & Agriculture, Fossil Fuels, Health & Safety, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, Oil & Gas, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
326
openthegovernment.org

BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package

August 8, 2022
540
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
260
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

U.S. Emissions Grow Only Slightly, Offer Hope for Meeting Paris Targets

January 12, 2023
79
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
Nuclear Jordan/Facebook

TC Energy Wants to Supply ‘Small-Scale’ Nuclear Reactors to Alberta Tar Sands/Oil Sands

May 4, 2022
399

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
MrRenewables/wikimedia commons

Higher ‘Value of Carbon’ Guidance Could Boost Aggressive Climate Policy

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}