Globe Climate: So Canada bought a pipeline. Now what?

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

Where do you plant a tree with a 1,000-year lifespan?

It’s a dangerous time to be a tree. A baby Douglas fir could have 1,000 years of life ahead – but only if you choose the right spot. And it’s hard to imagine any piece of earth being left in peace for 10 years, let alone 10 centuries. As Arno Kopecky searches to find suitable planting ground for his sapling, he realized there’s no better way to illustrate that, while we can’t change the past, the future remains unwritten.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Plastics: Delegates in Ottawa making strides toward global plastics treaty, Environment Minister says. Talks on curbing global plastics pollution started last week. Meanwhile, Indigenous delegates say they are being left out of key talks
2. EV production: Why Honda’s deal to manufacture electric vehicles and batteries is different (Plus, Adam Radwanski, The Globe’s climate policy columnist, is on The Decibel podcast)
3. Firefighting: Ontario to give wildland firefighters presumptive coverage for cancers, PTSD
4. Pollution: Aamjiwnaang First Nation declares state of emergency over industrial benzene leak
5. Carbon tax: Singh noncommittal on keeping scheduled increases to Liberals’ carbon price in place. Also, Saskatchewan residents to get carbon rebates despite province not paying levies, and the province shouldn’t pick fight with CRA, Trudeau says
6. From The Narwhal: It’s the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park.’ And Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation pulled it off without waiting on Canada

A deeper dive

What comes next for TMX

Jeffrey Jones writes about sustainable finance. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about what happens now that the Trans Mountain pipeline is finished.

Canadians did not plan on buying a pipeline when they elected Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015.

Yet we ended up with one. Now, years behind the initial startup target and billions of dollars more in construction costs, the Trans Mountain expansion is about to go into service, shipping 590,000 barrels a day of Alberta crude to the Pacific Coast.

It seemed a good time for The Globe and Mail to take stock. My colleagues, Emma Graney, Wendy Stueck and Brent Jang, joined me in an in-depth examination laying out what the prospects are now that a whopping $34-billion has been spent on the project, and the taps are opening.

How did we get here? Recall 2018: With regulatory and court delays dragging on, the U.S. owner of the pipeline threw its hands up and said it would shut the massive expansion project down. Mr. Trudeau and his ministers stepped in and bought the existing line between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., and pledged to complete the project.

So much has changed since the expansion was first discussed a dozen years ago. We looked at what shifts have taken place in oil markets, and what climate policies and Indigenous relations have meant for the economics. Key to the story is the government’s aim to sell the pipeline. It has said proposals for ownership by First Nations and Métis communities would be welcome. One big snag could be that massive cost overrun, which will mean higher-than-expected transport tolls for shippers and difficulty for Canadians recouping the full investment.

The major oil sands producers that are Trans Mountain’s base of committed shippers are excited by the prospect of reaching new markets overseas, and predict it will mean higher returns for their output. The question is: For how long, as Canada moves closer to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050? Meanwhile, safety is in sharp focus, especially in the waters off the West Coast, with tanker traffic poised to surge to spirit away all that crude.

Canadians have a lot at stake, and we’ve tried to put it all in perspective at a crucial time.

Take a minute this week to read the full story.

- Jeff

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What else you missed

• B.C. mom distributes air quality monitors after nine-year-old’s asthma death during wildfires
• Canada to force plastic makers to report how much they make, reuse and recycle
• Nearly 200 oil, chemical industry lobbyists plan to join UN talks in Ottawa to curb plastic pollution
• Canadian statistics paint grim picture of plastic litter problem
• As the climate changes, so too do Canadians’ farm fields and dinner tables
• B.C.’s Joffre Lakes Park to have partial closure, allowing for conservation, tourism
• Quebec farmers have been protesting since December. Is anyone listening?
• Tough new EPA rules would force coal-fired power plants to capture emissions or shut down
• Corals bred in zoo join Europe’s largest reef, offering scientists hope
• Alaska’s Indigenous teens emulate ancestors’ Arctic survival skills at the Native Youth Olympics
• Canadian health-care professionals urged to share climate disaster mitigation information
• U.S. plans 12 offshore wind auctions over five years
• British climate protester won’t be charged for sign telling jurors to vote their conscience

Opinion and analysis

Lucy Hargreaves: One small reference to carbon removal in 2024 budget, one big leap for Canada?

Rick Smith: This could be the year we solve plastics pollution

Agostino Petroni: Are European farmers right to be angry?

Elliott Cappell: After Canada’s mild winter, we should expect the unexpected on climate change

Editorial board: The Liberals promise billions for clean power. Don’t undermine it with politics

Green Investing

Opinion: Copper is the new oil and Big Mining sees the metal as its lifeblood

Copper has become the new oil, and no big mining house can prosper without the material considered critical to the transition to a low-carbon future, Eric Reguly writes.

Decarbonization cannot happen without copper. The metal is a superb conductor of electricity, is ductile (meaning it can rolled up or pulled into wires without breaking), conducts heat well and does not corrode like steel. Everyone wants it and the price is soaring as supply proves incapable of meeting demand.

• COP29 climate summit host Azerbaijan defends oil and gas investments
• Cava producer Freixenet plans to furlough 80 per cent of work force due to drought
• Electric car sales to rise but affordability in focus, IEA says

Making waves

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? E-mail GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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Guides and Explainers

• Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: the Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
• We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP28 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
• We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.

Catch up on Globe Climate

• Canada’s bird watchers are also observing climate change
• Why Norway is feeding Arctic foxes dog food
• We are all part of the eclipse cosmic community
• What do we lose when we lose winter?

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