A belated thread on the GHG Inventory released today. High (low?) points: Smaller-than-expected bounce-back from pandemic low. O&G extraction & refining still largest source (31%). Oil sands hits all time high (87 MT), greater than all of Quebec (79 MT). Graph that tells a story: Oil and Gas remains the largest and fastest-rising source of GHGs. What this graph doesn't show you is how O&G lobbyists exercise their power to prevent / delay action to transition off of fossil fuels and keep emissions stubbornly high.

Early drought has led Alberta government to restrict water withdrawals & warn industrial users of worse to come. Yet while oil companies warn their shareholders of risk of climate change-induced water shortages, the #ableg Minister responsible remains in denial.
The evidence: 2. In November, AB Ministry of Environment & Protected Areas said river flows and reservoir levels were ~50% of normal and that “spring water levels are expected to be dire.” They will “plan for extreme drought and hope for rain/snow.”
alberta.ca/system/files/e…

In today's episode of "oil companies doing bad things", a US Congressional report implicates Canada Pension Plan-owned company in a pro-fracking campaign that involved fake-grassroots groups, misleading claims, paid counter-protesters & accusations of harassment + bribery 1/n 2. 7 years ago, @cppib bought Encana's oil and gas wells in Colorado and created its own company, Crestone Peak Resources. Crestone has come under fire for providing $100K to an industry front group campaigning against a proposed fracking ban theglobeandmail.com/business/artic…

In an op ed, Alberta Energy Minister @SonyaSavage denounces proposed Sovereignty Act for ignoring rule of law.
Yet the Energy War Room, aka @CDNEnergyCentre (funded & directed by Savage in her role as Energy Minister) refuses to comply with federal law governing lobbying #ableg

https://twitter.com/EmmaLGraney/status/1570848413381693440

2. You may be thinking: So what? Aren’t provincial bodies & crown corporations are exempt from fed lobbying rules?
But to avoid public scrutiny via FOI, CEC was set up as a corporation (funded by province with 3 AB Cabinet members, including Savage, on board of directors)

Canada's top oil lobby group @OilGasCanada (via their front group @Energy_Citizens) has shifted gears & is now trying to kill proposed O&G emissions cap. No more 'we need more time' or 'we can't reduce GHGs that fast', new line is Kill this Bill energycitizens.ca/emissions-cap/ #cdnpoli 2. Rationale for abandoning any pretense of caring about the climate crisis is "The world has changed.... We can no longer allow our domestic energy policies to be guided by a singular focus on reducing domestic emissions from our natural gas & oil industry"
Let's break that down

A requiem for Jason Kenney: He rose to power as Stephen Harper’s most capable lieutenant, but once he sat in the big chair it quickly became apparent that his political smarts lay in tactics, not strategy #ableg 2. We saw this most prominently in his handling of Covid, but his ‘fight back’ strategy attacking environmentalists as the source of Alberta’s woes also floundered as the lavishly-funded War Room & Allan Inquiry served up only political punchlines (I certainly had a few laughs)

So I'm a wee bit into the whiskey (courtesy of Bay du Nord decision) and rereading the Minister's letter to Suncor rejecting (for now) its 225K bpd oil sands expansion project that also came out today: iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/documents/… 2. The key thing here is the process launched today to establish 'best in class' emissions levels newswire.ca/news-releases/…
@ProfKHarrison @bataille_chris @ghoberg @molszyns @enviroeconomics

Thread: As we digest the #IPCC report, let’s recall how Working Groups divide up the analysis (and why WG 3 is so important):
WG1: basic climate science (why are we fucked?)
WG2: impacts (how fucked are we?)
WG3: mitigation (how do we unfuck ourselves?)
h/t @GreenSolitaire @GreenSolitaire Five things that I saw as new/different in the 2022 WG 3 report:
1. Tech (good news)
2. Social science (not just an engineering problem)
3. Inequality (within, not just between, nations)
4. Fossil fuels (out of the closet)
5. Finance (it matters / is taking us in wrong direction)

I am currently dangling from a tripod, blocking the entrance to @rbc, the 5th largest fossil fuel funder in the world because decades of politely asking banks to stop fueling climate change hasn’t worked. Yes I am too old for this shit.

Canadian oil companies and their industry lobby groups were also deeply embedded in campaigns of climate denial and delay

https://twitter.com/greenpeaceusa/status/1453711573046943746

Some of the earliest research was done by @exxonmobil and its Canadian arm @ImperialOil, whose scientists had found a clear and credible link between oil and gas combustion and global warming by the 1970s, but the companies went on to deny the problem thetyee.ca/News/2019/12/1…

Dear @TomOlsenXIX: Why isn’t @CDNEnergyCentre registered as a Third Party for #elxn44? elections.ca/WPAPPS/WPR/EN/…
The #ableg War Room is clearly promoting positions clearly identified with a #cdnpoli political party, so seems like they should register elections.ca/content.aspx?s… 1/n @TomOlsenXIX @CDNEnergyCentre 2. For example, we know that the War Room is paying Hamish Marshall’s company ($6K/month?) to help promote its petitions calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-priv…

1. CTV has a story on how the #ableg Privacy Commissioner is investigating the War Room’s hiring of Hamish Marshall’s PR/lobbying firm calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-priv… #cdnpoli 2. It all started with the War Room’s Netflix/Bigfoot petition alerting me to fact that @CDNEnergyCentre was running petitions. Why, I wondered, was a publicly-funded comms outfit gathering names & postal codes like a political party?

Today's Supreme Court decision is a victory not just for the carbon tax. It recognizes climate change as a threat to Peace, Order & Good Government & lays out a roadmap for the federal govt to set minimum standards that provinces can exceed but not undercut. 2. Constitutionally, who could do what on climate was always a bit fuzzy resulting in lowest-common #cdnpoli denominator policies. By calling the question, Premiers Ford, Moe & Kenney have ultimately strengthened the federal government's hand in future battles over climate policy

Doug Ford’s gas pump stickers hid an uglier truth link.medium.com/LaQbw5g4Lab #onpoli #climatedenial #stickers #ClimateChange 2. It started as a comedy - who among us didn't laugh as the (misleading) anti-carbon tax stickers literally came unstuck due to cheap glue? I mean, what does Doug 'Deco Labels and Tags' Ford know about stickers anyway?

Re-upping this in light of news that Alberta's Energy War Room is gearing back up with an expensive new ad campaign, because I expect these 'facts' will figure in the campaign #ableg 1/x

https://twitter.com/climatekeith/status/1286301397449879556

2. It is possible that the bright lights at the War Room still go with 'the world will always need more oil' narrative, but after the treehuggers at BP, Total & the IEA all said oil's days are numbered that's a tough sell

In another step-on-a-rake moment, Jason Kenney's War Room's new campaign features 'facts' that are disproved by the source they cite #ableg

https://twitter.com/CDNEnergyCentre/status/1286297428237389825

War Room Fact #1: "Oil and gas is the largest subsector of Canada's economy, accounting for $221 billion, or 10.6% of nominal GDP in 2018. Source: Natural Resources Canada"
Correct fact, according to NRCAN: O&G is 5.6% nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/d…

1. Lessons for #cdnpoli from the ruthless capitalists at BlackRock, the biggest investment firm in the world: "The evidence on climate risk is compelling investors to reassess core assumptions about modern finance...."
blackrock.com/corporate/inve… 2. Coal divestment = 1st step: "bc capital markets pull future risk forward, we will see changes in capital allocation more quickly than we see changes to the climate itself. In the near future – & sooner than most anticipate – there will be a significant reallocation of capital"

An #elxn43 story worth following beyond the headline: It’s not just that the company co-founded by Scheer’s campaign manager (Hamish Marshall) has contracts with both CPC and CAPP for election advertising theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic… #cdnpoli 2. This development has to be seen in light of the Globe scoop back in April on a secret meeting between oil-industry executives & Conservative politicians to map out a strategy for defeating the Trudeau government theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…