by Doug Struck

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago

Global warming has been a top issue for much of Canada's federal election campaign, which ends Tuesday when Canadians will pick a party to form a new government. First affected by changes in the environment are Canadians who live on the northern fringes of the country. Scientists say temperatures are rising much faster in the Arctic than… Read More

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago The delegates had worked for 36 hours straight at the international gathering in Montreal in 2005 intended to keep the Kyoto Protocol from stalling. The deadline to adjourn had passed, and so had a long night of high drama and low obstinacy.

In the bleary dawn of 6 a.m., as the translators threatened to pack up and the janitors hovered to sweep the hall, conference chairman Stéphane Dion got what he wanted -- a stubborn Russian gave in and the reluctant Americans signed on. Afterwards, the participants lined… Read More

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago Carbon allowances sold for $3.07 per ton in the nation's first regional cap-and-trade auction, auction officials said Monday. The price was lower than futures markets had predicted but higher than the minimum price some had feared.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auction held last Thursday sold all of the 12.6 million allowances offered in this first bidding. Power plants in 10 northeastern states will have to acquire allowances equal to 188 million tons of carbon dioxide, the "cap" set for plants' 2009 emissions in the region. RGGI will sell the allowances in quarterly auctions, until 2014, when the… Read More

Posted 1 year, 2 months ago The nation's first carbon cap-and-trade program starts Thursday, when power plant owners in 10 northeastern states submit sealed bids to buy allowances to emit greenhouse gases. Two other regional programs are to follow, assuring that nearly half of the United States will be covered by carbon trading programs -- with or without leadership from Congress and the White House.

"Twenty-four states are working on cap-and-trade" along with four large Canadian provinces, said Judi Greenwald, of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Washington. "The federal government was not doing enough in their… Read More

Posted 1 year, 2 months ago Canadian voters regularly told pollsters last year that their top concern was global warming and what to do about it. So when the national election was called for this Oct. 14, the chief opposition party charged out with a bold carbon tax proposal. The other opposition parties also opened their campaigns with carbon tax or cap-and-trade themes.

It looked like an environmentalist's dream -- a national debate over climate change, with voters left to decide on which route to take to reduce greenhouse gases.