CLIMATE CHANGE

Fire weather

Hot, dry, and windy. Those are the conditions that keep fires alive, burning, growing, and spreading. In other words, they’re fire weather. And according to federal officials, Canada is experiencing at least two of the three more intensely so far in 2024 than it did this time last year—ahead of a record fire season. The root cause: a changing climate.

The resulting risk is a scary repeat of 2023, except worse. "With the heat and dryness across the country we can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner, and end later and potentially be more explosive (compared to last year)," federal emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan told reporters Wednesday. He’s referring to the extreme drought conditions that are persisting in Western Canada following the past warmer-than-usual winter (B.C.’s spring snowpack, for instance, is the lowest on record).

Globally, March’s end marked yet another heat record, making the past 12-month period “the planet’s hottest ever recorded,” according to the EU’s climate change authority. And while this may bring earlier springs for some, it’s wreaking havoc on animals and ecosystems.

Climate change is also bad news for affordability. A new study in the Nature suite of journals finds that rising temperatures are expected to add 1–2% of inflation to food prices in North America annually, while a separate Bloomberg analysis reveals that U.S. inflation would have been 0.8% higher last year if rising home insurance costs were factored into the Consumer Price Index (a key inflation metric). We can’t control the weather, but we can stop the burning of fossil fuels making it more extreme, unpredictable, and ultimately expensive.

The big distraction

Here’s a new idea. Let the premiers opposing carbon pricing have the emergency meeting with Trudeau they’ve been calling for. Reason: their lack of a better alternative will reveal just how many of them don’t have a plan. That’s the rationale NDP environment critic Laurel Collins provided for why her party voted in favour of the motion, anyway. Good idea or not, the spectacle still risks feeding into a distortion of the policy’s impacts and how it works. As the National Observer’s Max Fawcett wrote in a recent op-ed, the continued carbon price conversation is but a distraction from “talking about what a Conservative government would (actually do to address climate change) and what that could mean for our future.” 

A new green energy industry

In more hopeful news, Canada’s first commercial-scale green hydrogen plant grew one step closer to becoming reality last week after Newfoundland and Labrador approved a massive 300-plus-turbine project that will help power it. The industry for the clean-burning fuel is also boosting clean electricity south of the border, where two green hydrogen projects are set to collectively add a whopping eight gigawatts of local wind and solar energy to both power the plants’ operations and support Texas's increasingly strained grid. 

Greener Homes 2.0

The federal government announced that the hugely popular Canada Green Homes initiative will be getting a $903.5-million renewal and update as part of Canada’s Housing Plan in the forthcoming Budget. Details have yet to be finalized (which the government should move swiftly on), but the program’s vital reboot keeps alive a smart package of affordability, climate action, and job creation benefits. Read our response here. 

A big deal

B.C.-based hydrogen fuel cell maker Ballard Power recently signed a big supply deal that could soon see the company’s clean-burning engines make their way into 1,000 transit buses in Europe (where Ballard’s fuel cells already power buses operating in more than 22 cities). Meanwhile, Nova Scotia’s new rebates for zero-emission trucks and buses became available on April 1.

Surging clean electricity

New data from Ember shows that electricity generated from low-cost wind, solar, and other clean sources are increasingly displacing fossil fuels, which have fallen by 32% over the past 12 months—even as electricity demand has stopped falling.

EVs = cheaper electricity

EV adoption has helped drive down U.S. electricity rates since 2011, finds a new study conducted for the American non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council. It used real-world data to compare the cost for utilities to build, generate, and distribute electricity used by EV drivers versus how much drivers were paying for the electricity, concluding that EVs have contributed more than $3 billion in net revenue to utilities in the recent decade. Speaking of charging, Quebec has set up a 34-dual-charging-station pilot for dense neighbourhoods that are charger-deprived, while New York City’s highly successful one is getting an extension.

A new electric ‘work truck’

One of Canada’s best-selling vehicles, the Chevy Silverado pickup truck, is getting an electric version. Though its $75,000 starting price means it won’t qualify for the federal rebate, the fleet-focused EV is still a mighty powerful truck with even more horsepower than its gas counterpart. 

IMAGE & MEDIA CREDITS: B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (via Flickr) & Automotive Rhythms (via Flickr)