THIS WEEK

Some jaw-dropping stats about climate change, some BS-busting facts about carbon pricing, and just how many Model 3s did Tesla sell last year? (A lot.)

CLIMATE CHANGE

Last year was the fourth hottest ever. As for 2019...

If you still have an uncle who denies climate change, start with this: the last four years have been the hottest on record. So by that measure, 2018 wasn't so bad, being just the fourth hottest year ever. 

Sea ice is now at a record low, and 2019 is unlikely to provide relief, as scientists predict yet another hot year—potentially made worse by an El Nino event. The average temperature over the past five years has been 1.1C above pre-industrial times—or not so far off the 1.5C rise predicted for the middle of this century. As the UN's recent report made clear, things only get exponentially worse from there.

Here's an idea: maybe we should continue pricing the pollution causing this.

Canada joins global clean energy agency

Canada has joined the International Renewable Energy Agency, making it one of 160 members. The federal government had been in talks since 2017, but last week it became official. IRENA promotes all forms of renewable energy, providing policy and financing advice, training, and the benefits of shared knowledge.

Follow the money

Twenty-nine automakers are now investing over $300 billion in electric vehicles, finds new analysis from Reuters. Amazingly—but not surprisingly—45% of that is bound for China. Also fascinating is the biggest investor: Germany, in particular Volkswagen. This is one of those occasions where a chart says more than—well, I actually don't have a lot of words here. Check out the chart.

The year in electric cars

U.S. electric vehicles sales were up 81% last year, but it really boils down to one car: Tesla's Model 3 (see below). Meanwhile, in Canada, as electric car sales continue to increase (year-end numbers to come), they're far below our aspirations of a decade ago. As I told the Globe and Mail, “What we have been lacking is any kind of national plan to deploy electric vehicles and attract capital and compete to serve the demand for electric cars."


Hitting the brakes

Ontario's provincial transit authority, Metrolinx, is prematurely ending a pilot project in which it installed 24 EV chargers at GO train stations. The chargers were being used about once a day, earning less than their operating costs, according to the Ontario government. Considering the rapid uptake of electric cars, that decision will likely prove to be a short-sighted one. You'd think it would be better to keep them installed than having to reinstall them in a couple years.

Clearing the smoke on carbon pricing

From our friends at Canada's Ecofiscal Commission: "Several studies that assessed the impacts of BC’s carbon tax in its early years found a measurable effect on emissions. They also identified specific sectors where the carbon tax was making an impact—vehicle fuel economy and natural gas consumption in the private sector, to name a few. The bottom line: Study after study shows that emissions in BC are lower than they would have been without the carbon tax."

24-hour sunshine (power) in Hawaii 

The sun may set, but the power it generates needn't recede over the horizon. Hawaii just became home to the world’s largest solar-paired battery system, offsetting the need to rely on expensive imported oil and helping the state get closer to its goal of going 100% renewable by 2045.


The geopolitics of (clean) energy

As the energy landscape shifts, so too do its tectonic geopolitics. While China is undoubtedly well-positioned, poorer, fossil-fuel dependent nations could suffer, a new report says.

Another hot fact 

Remember that climate-change-denying uncle I mentioned? Here's another one for you if he lives in B.C.: 2017's record-breaking wildfires may have burned 11 times more land than they would have had it not been for climate change, according to a new study.

Meanwhile, in the other timeline

In an interview with the National Observer, former Ontario PC leader—and current mayor of Brampton—Patrick Brown, who resigned under a cloud of scandal, says things "would’ve been very different if I had been premier of Ontario. I would have been a conservative partner with the federal government, trying to combat climate change.”
Clean Energy Review is sponsored in part by Genus Capital Management, a leading provider of fossil-fuel-free investments. 
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IMAGE & MEDIA CREDITS

Images: GTM, AES, Axios
Clean Energy Review is a weekly digest of climate and clean energy news and insight from across Canada and around the world.

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