Globe Climate: Here’s how to keep up with our COP26 coverage

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.

Welcome to the first week of COP26! Please jump down to our breakdown of what our reporters are going to be covering this week to keep up with the latest.

And, if you have young ones at home, help them understand what’s happening and how to investigate the world with purpose. They are the future, after all.

Let’s Talk Science and the Royal Society of Canada have partnered to provide Globe and Mail readers with relevant coverage about issues that affect us all – from education to the impact of leading-edge scientific discoveries.

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

Non-COP26 reporting this week:

1. How sea otters led a green revolution on the B.C. coast – and played a part in climate-proofing the Pacific
2. Life in the underwater meadow: Why protecting seagrass is vital in our fight to heal the climate, save fisheries and support biodiversity
3. China wants to dominate the global electric vehicle market - and it’s using Congolese minerals to do it
4. Greenhouse gas levels show planet veering from climate goal
5. Tax and Spend: As Ottawa aims for 2030 carbon goals, net benefits for households shrink
6. From The Narwhal: Four ways people are trying to protect Canada’s natural landscapes

A deeper dive

This week in Glasgow

Ryan MacDonald is the senior editor for climate, environment and resources at The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he breaks down what you can expect from us for COP26.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 26), the world’s most consequential environment conference is finally under way in Glasgow. At Globe Climate, we’ve been planning for this moment for months. We have all that you need to understand what COP26 means for Canada and for the world. Here’s a rundown:

• What is COP26? A guide to the Glasgow climate talks. I encourage you to start here with this piece by Kathryn Blaze Baum, environment reporter, and Jeffrey Jones, the Globe’s ESG and sustainable finance reporter. It is an accessible, authoritative explanation about what’s at stake (and it includes a handy glossary of terms)
• A circus with a purpose. Adam Radwanski is the Globe’s climate policy and politics writer and he’ll be in Glasgow reporting for the duration of the talks. Read his take on why putting climate change in this spotlight means that no country can ignore it.
• Business and commentary. Eric Reguly, the Globe’s European bureau chief, has covered many COPs and as an economic and financial columnist will be writing about what business needs from COP26 to succeed on climate goals. To kick off the discussion, Eric looks at the economic fallout from net-zero promises.
• The scene in Glasgow. Europe correspondent Paul Waldie will provide updates as thousands of delegates descend on Glasgow. Hosting a global conference in the midst of a pandemic was never going to be easy, but the city is facing some particularly tricky challenges, namely: garbage, angry picket lines and rats.
• Africa: Broken promises. Geoffrey York, the Globe’s Africa bureau chief, is currently in Gabon and will continue to file on what developing nations are looking for from COP26. You can read his interview with Gabon’s Environment Minister Lee White, who is leading the African negotiating team here.
• China: No new pledges. James Griffiths, the Globe’s Asia correspondent, has been tracking China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and its promises heading into COP26. As James writes, China remains hugely dependent on coal has not announced any major new climate pledges.
• Listen to the Decibel: Where our reporters ask, is there a point to the COP26 climate summit without China’s Xi? Also, Dr. Sarah Burch, a climate scientist and an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, talks about what is at stake.
• The Globe’s world-class Opinion team has an incredible roster of contributors talking about climate, including: Viviane Fairbanks on climate science; John Rapley on whether democracy can rise to face the crisis together and Bjorn Lomborg on why we need to invest more on green energy R&D.
• On the Daily. Over the next two weeks, Sierra Bein and the Globe’s audience team will be busy keeping you, the reader, top of mind by updating our coverage daily, flagging the most important developments and highlighting the urgent voices around the most important topic of our time.

– Ryan

Open this photo in gallery:

What else you missed

• B.C. unveils latest plan to meet climate action targets, as emissions continue to climb
• U.S. Supreme Court to hear bid to curb federal power to limit carbon emissions
• Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault ‘cautiously optimistic’ about COP26
• A look at high-tech climate solutions that could cut emissions in the long term
• China submits updated climate pledges to United Nations ahead of COP26
• Oil executives deny spreading disinformation about climate change
• Turkey’s second-largest lake dries up because of climate change, agricultural policies
• Canada leads G20 in financing fossil fuel, lags in renewables funding, report says

Opinion and analysis

Jean Charest, Sharleen Gale, Don Lindsay, Bill Yardley, Jeff Zweig: At COP26, Canada can lead on the unfinished business of the Paris Agreement

Adam Radwanski: Trudeau’s cabinet choices put the oil-and-gas sector on notice

Bjorn Lomborg: Funding green research is the most effective way to tackle climate change

Raymond Biesinger: Homo climate mutatio: An anatomy lesson for our 22nd century descendants

Konrad Yakabuski: Steven Guilbeault got the gig he wanted. Will he be able to handle the heat?

Ken Boessenkool and Mike Moffat: The battles have been won, and the old political axioms are dead. Carbon taxes are here to stay

Gary Mason: Climate policy is mainstream now. Has Canada’s Green Party become irrelevant?

Kevin Krausert: To take advantage of Calgary’s energy transition, we must move past the political extremes

Green Investing

University of Toronto to divest from fossil fuel investments by end of 2030

The university said it would end any direct investment in fossil fuel companies within a year and would extract itself from indirect investments through pooled or commingled assets by 2030 or sooner. It also committed to placing 10 per cent of its investments, or about $400-million, in what it called “sustainable and low-carbon investments” by 2025.

U of T has an endowment of $4-billion, the largest among Canadian universities, run by its own asset-management corporation. The university says its fossil fuel investments are worth just under $65-million, or about 1.6 per cent of its holdings.

• Jeffrey Jones: Regardless of outcome, oil CEOs testifying will help Biden in climate talks
• BlackRock creates biggest climate exchange-traded fund range
• Investors expect global green bond investment to reach $1-trillion in 2022: survey
• British banks, insurers face climate risk capital crackdown
• Some airlines risk failure if they do not cut emissions quicker in next three to five years, industry report says
• Shell says breaking up oil major into separate companies would not work in real life

Making waves

Open this photo in gallery:

‘I know the kind of future I want to see for Canada’: Meet six Canadians advocating for the planet

From heat waves to floods and storms, the effects of climate change and the coverage around it can feel overwhelming.

That hasn’t stopped these Canadians from making strides toward a sustainable future. We are sharing their stories ahead of the COP26 Global Climate Conference, when leaders of more than 190 countries will attempt to come to an agreement on the next steps for transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Check out this special COP26 round up of profiles, a summary of some of our favourite “Making Waves” blurbs features in Globe Climate over the months leading up to the summit.

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:

Catch up on Globe Climate

• It’s time to iron out climate-related disclosure
• Indigenous-led power to put 17 First Nations on the grid
• Is this what the energy transition looks like?
• Canadian pension funds play big role in green transition

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.