Globe Climate: Going to court to combat climate change

If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Climate and all Globe newsletters here.

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

Millets are having a moment this year. The United Nations declared 2023 to be the International Year of Millets, aiming to raise awareness of their suitability to grow under adverse and changing climate and conditions.

They are sustainable, hardy, drought-resistant crops that are ready to harvest about 45 days after planting, faster than wheat, rice, oats and quinoa. Julie Van Rosendaal has more on how and why to eat this climate-friendly grain.

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

Open this photo in gallery:

Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. NWT wildfires: Essential workers returning to Yellowknife ahead of residents to reopen critical services
2. B.C. wildfires: B.C. to expand programs that train volunteers to help firefighters battle wildfires. Meanwhile, students to return to school in fire-ravaged communities and the fires in Shuswap fanned political flames
3. G20 in India: Can a developing nation lift people out of poverty, and achieve its dreams of superpower status, before deadly heat makes life impossible? The world is anxious to find out as it gathers in New Delhi for G20 summit
4. Forests: As Canada’s boreal forests burn again and again, they won’t grow back the same way
5. EVs: Another use for your electric vehicle? Powering your home during a blackout
6. Oil and gas: Former Trans Mountain CEO plays up role for Indigenous ownership in pipeline expansion
7. Clean energy: Newfoundland and Labrador picks four wind farm projects to power hydrogen plants
8. Policy: Conservatives dig in on message against carbon pricing while Liberals point to wildfires
9. On the ground with The Narwhal: In this Rocky Mountain wildlife corridor, a luxury development forges ahead despite fierce opposition

A deeper dive

Climate litigation is heating up

Kate Helmore is a summer reporter for Report on Business. For this week’s deeper dive, she talks about climate litigation.

Youth are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they have their government, one that consistently fails to deliver radical action on climate crisis. Meanwhile they see their future: forest fires, floods, disease and biodiversity loss. A future under way and guaranteed to continue because the rock moved barely an inch.

Yet young climate activists have found a crack in the stone: the court system.

Previously courts had considered the issue of climate change to be too political to touch. But perhaps inspired by the burning calamity that surrounds us, judges and legal experts are changing their tune. Last month, Montana youth successfully sued their state for violating their rights to a safe and healthy environment. A violation that occurred every time the state enabled the fossil fuel industry. A UN panel of experts also found climate change to be form of “structural violence” and that a child had the right to seek legal recourse. A case in Ontario, suing the Ford government for rolling back the cap-and-trade agreement, is under appeal. And August was only one part of the wave: According to a UN report published in July, climate-litigation cases have more than doubled in the past five years.

But justice moves at a measured pace. While climate litigation is indeed a opening for opportunity, is it a foothold? Each case will be appealed and stretch for years, perhaps decades. Lawyers will argue minutia while the world burns. After all, climate change is unencumbered and knows no such restraint.

Read the full story today.

- Kate

Open this photo in gallery:

What else you missed

• Wildfire smoke can damage the brain long after flames are extinguished, research says
• First Africa Climate Summit opens as hard-hit continent demands more say and financing
• B.C. extends state of emergency as wildfire risk stretches into colder season
• Study finds direct link between greenhouse gas emissions and polar bear survival, scientists say
• B.C.’s agriculture industry at forefront of climate change reality
• Bob Barker remembered as ‘strong voice for animals’ in Canada, says wildlife advocate
• In a storied B.C. river, fish are dying in droves as climate change takes toll
• Climate change, trade ties top agenda as Trudeau attends summits in Asia
• Alberta Premier condemns federal Environment Minister’s emissions cap comments
• European Union’s new green chief vows not to weaken climate ambition
• Protester arrested after paint splashed on Tom Thomson piece in National Gallery
• EU to seek COP28 deal on phasing out fossil fuels, according to draft document
• Pope Francis decries ‘terrible world war’ on environment, announces new writing

Opinion and analysis

Courtney Howard, Nicole Redvers, Sarah Cook: The awful fires in the Northwest Territories can light the way to a better, healthier future

David Beatty: Canada’s election laws have sidelined Green voters for far too long

Kelly Cryderman: The Prairies should prepare for more summers like this one

John Vaillant: As our forests burn, oil companies are doubling down on their old business models

Editorial board: Climate change, and a watershed moment for water use in British Columbia

Green Investing

OMERS Ventures head Damien Steel to lead cleantech startup Deep Sky founded by Hopper CEO

Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s head of venture capital, Damien Steel, is departing to lead an ambitious climate technology startup founded by one of Canada’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. The managing partner of the pension giant’s $2-billion ventures group, will become chief executive officer of Deep Sky Corp., which is chaired by its co-founder, Fred Lalonde, CEO of online travel company Hopper Inc.

• U.S. Treasury unveils wage, apprenticeship guidance for clean energy tax credits
• Australia’s central bank warns climate change adds uncertainty to policy

Making waves

Each week The Globe profiles a Canadian making a difference, but we are taking a little break for the rest of summer. We’ll be back to showing off everyone’s great work in a few weeks.

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

Photo of the week

Open this photo in gallery:

Guides and Explainers

• Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: 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 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

• Even deep-sea species are feeling the heat of climate change
• Western Canada’s unrelenting wildfires showing signs of reprieve but tough days remain ahead
• Noise pollution drowns out voices under the sea, threatening marine life
• Why is Alberta putting a pause on renewables?

We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.