By late February, the Smokehouse Creek wildfire in the Texas Panhandle had become the state’s first ever “gigafire,” a label saved for blazes that tear through more than a million acres. From a region that’s home to more cows than anywhere in the United States, images of cattle running from the “monster” blaze went viral, reminding us, yet again, that bad weather keeps getting worse.  Scientists have been sounding the alarm that we need to do more and quickly to help curtail global warming’s catastrophic impacts, pointing out that coal, cars and cattle are top greenhouse gas emitters. The ..read more

Some plant-based brands have struggled to lower their prices so they’re on par with meat and dairy products. But while beef burgers, bacon and chicken nuggets might be easier on household budgets, they have all sorts of planetary and socio-economic costs that don’t show up on receipts. Forests Livestock farming is responsible for almost 40% of global deforestation, mostly in the vital rainforests of the Amazon. Risks Increased climate-related natural disasters could lower the profits of the 40 largest livestock companies by almost US$24 billion in 2030 from 2020 levels. Subsidies Government ..read more

Staring down Lake Michigan in Chicago’s south side is a stone archway with a macabre cattle head at its peak, one of a few remaining relics from a gruesome industrial past. It’s the centrepiece of the original Union Stockyards gates, opened in 1865 as the doorway to a sprawling 320 acres of livestock pens, abattoirs and rail operations. By 1900, it had swelled to 475 acres and was said to be the largest livestock operation in the world. It was also the birthplace of industrial meat, where fateful new methods permanently changed how beef, pork and poultry were produced and transported, and evol ..read more

In 1983, a French oceanographic research institute invited an invader to the country’s northern shores. The Japanese seaweed wakame, which grows in fettuccine-like ochre ribbons, had already made itself at home on the French Mediterranean coast after hitching a ride on an oyster boat from Asia in the 1970s. But the decision to introduce this foreign breed of kelp to three islands off the coast of Brittany was made with the intention of farming it as a commodity. Researchers from IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) found that the wakame had colonized a nearby ..read more

First in Singapore to publish Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD); aligning with Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework* Conducted International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards gap analysis; expanded disclosures in CDL ISR 2024 to include Group data with the aim for full alignment by FY 2025 First corporate to secure the OCBC 1.5°C sustainability-linked loan, Singapore’s first net zero-aligned loan City Developments Limited (CDL) has released its Integrated Sustainability Report (ISR) 2024, marking its 17th sustainability report s ..read more

Tom Rose felt like he was in a blockbuster movie when, on August 23, 2022, a cavalcade of black Suburban SUVs pulled into his town of Stephenville, Newfoundland, and disgorged the chancellor and vice-chancellor of Germany, the prime minister of Canada and a mass of other dignitaries. Standing in the receiving line, the 52-year-old mayor and former strawberry farmer took in a moment that he now believes may go down as one of the most significant in Newfoundland history. In an industrial hall next to the Stephenville airport, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed an agr ..read more

On the world stage at Davos 2024, Canada’s minister of finance, Chrystia Freeland, declared that “right now we’re living through a moment which is comparable only to the Industrial Revolution.” She was referring to the green transition, and the opportunities and challenges that lay before us as world leaders race to decarbonize their economies. In a pitch to convince foreign investors to put their money in Canadian industries, Freeland said the federal government has “a suite of policies for the industrial transformation” worth around $120 billion. She pointed to federal climate initiatives su ..read more

TD shareholders are currently voting on a proposal we recently co-filed at the bank alongside four other investors, including Nomura Asset Management U.K. The proposal asks for more meat on the bone to tell us how TD intends to meet its net-zero commitment, given that the bank’s current plans are vague and its real-world performance is heading in the opposite direction.  This issue is not unique to TD. Western banks have spent the last few years setting targets and measuring their financed emissions – that is, the emissions resulting from their lending, investments and underwriting. The n ..read more

The federal carbon tax increase is now in effect, and will raise gas prices by three cents per litre in most Canadian provinces. The hike prompted complaints from seven premiers and a recent parliamentary showdown, culminating in a failed vote of non-confidence in the Liberal government. Yet this ongoing debate overlooks a far costlier carbon tax: fossil fuel subsidies. Fossil fuel subsidies cost us big bucks Every year, federal and provincial governments use taxpayer dollars to provide financial supports or tax breaks to fossil fuel companies. These subsidies cost Canadian taxpayers at least ..read more

Just 57 companies and nation states were responsible for generating 80% of the world’s CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and cement over the last seven years, according to a new report released by the thinktank InfluenceMap. This finding suggests that net zero targets set by the Paris climate change agreement in 2015 are yet to make a significant impact on fossil fuel production. The report uses the Carbon Majors database, established in 2013 by Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute, to provide fossil fuel production data from 122 of the world’s largest oil, gas, coal and cement ..read more