Climate change, once seen as a distant future concern, is now an urgent issue for towns and cities grappling with wildfires, floods, droughts, and extreme weather. In Pincher Creek, Alberta, they are taking proactive steps, conducting a risk assessment, and implementing adaptive measures through the MCCAC program.
Alberta burned it’s last lump of coal to produce electricity on June 16, 2024 at 10:57 pm. This represents the largest emissions reduction action in Canada. We look at what it all means and where Alberta goes from here in our interview with Scott MacDougall of the Pembina Institute.
On the occaision of their 10th anniversary, we speak to The Energy Mix publisher Mitchell Beer who founded the independent media service 10 years ago. Since then they have published 30,000 stories on climate change.
Edmonton has a goal of planting 2 million trees to help fight climate change and make a much more beautiful city. We dive deep to explore their efforts to plant trees, naturalize landscapes and expand the urban canopy and build a climate-resilient city.
The consultants said it wasn’t affordable–it couldn’t be done. But Salvation Army architect Michaela Jones pushed back hard requoting their 175-unit supportive living complex as net-zero-ready at the last minute. Now this amazing solar powered, geothermal heated and cooled, energy-efficient building will save Sally Ann $6 million.
On the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day, we talk to Denis Hayes the coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970. Earth Day defined environmentalism in the 1970, but sadly being green in 2023 is as hard as ever as we learn from Hayes who bemoans political populism and the incredibly challenging mother of all environmental issues – Climate Change.
As a young economics grad Hazel Thayer did some reading on the climate crisis and decided the “grown-ups” were not going to solve it. So she started a TikTok channel where in 60 seconds or less she blends comedy with facts in short videos. Oh, and she’s already racked up 120k followers while doing it. This week on GreenEnergyFutures.ca meet Hazel Thayer AKA @hazelisonline She just might be the Rick Mercer of TikTok.
One of the coolest things about Edmonton, Alberta is its community leagues. There are 162 volunteer groups representing every neighbourhood in the city doing everything from running sports, cultural and recreational programs, to operating halls, tennis courts and skating rinks AND as it turns out taking action on Climate Change. Interest in solar, energy efficiency, local food and sustainability was so high the Edmonton Federation started the Green Leagues program – this week we find out what’s happening in the ‘hoods.
You often hear oil and gas pitted against renewable energy as if they are in an all-out either-or war for supremacy. But Alberta, Canada’s oil province is also blessed with the best renewable and clean energy resources in the country and the energy expertise to build the net-zero economy of the future. We have done so many stories about inspired Albertans building the economy of the future we thought we’d take the conversation live. In this preview, we speak to four Albertans who believe their province has the right stuff to thrive in a net-zero future.
Canada has a new Emissions Reduction Plan to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. Binnu Jeyakumar of the Pembina Institute says “This is a turning point for climate action in Canada. It’s the first time we have a detailed plan on how we get 40% emissions reductions…by 2030. We zero in on new measures to decarbonize Canada’s electricity grid.
Dagmar Knutson was growing very tired of the rhetoric and polarization that swirls around climate change and energy transition in oil-rich Alberta. So she formed Ten Peaks Innovation Alliance and has organized a conference to bring teachers and students together to transcend polarization and begin collaborating on building the low carbon energy future we all need.
By day Mark Dowson works on solar projects in the United Kingdom, but when the sun goes down he’s the author of a series of post-climate change, dystopian, SciFi thrillers.
Schneider Electric was named the most sustainable company in the world by Corporate Knights a Canadian sustainability rating firm. The France-based global company already used 80 per cent renewable energy for its operations and wants to be carbon neutral by 2025.
Edmonton has a bold plan to live within a 1.5-degree carbon budget, get to zero emissions and build a sustainable 15-minute city of the future.
The media loves a good headline – The Energy vs Climate expert panel tackles energy and climate change in the media with Laura Lynch of the CBC’s What on Earth show.
Canada just updated its climate plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 and get Canada to “net-zero emissions” by 2050. Is the plan going to work? Green Energy Futures checks in with the Energy vs Climate panel of experts to find out.
Is nuclear power the only way we can reach net-zero emissions or is it a threat to civilization and a distraction from the development of other low carbon sources of energy such as solar and wind? We discuss this with energy experts Ed Whittingham, Dr. David Keith, Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon and former Canadian Green Party leader and current MP Elizabeth May.
Kent Rathwell’s new big idea is to create Carbon Plunk Parks near cities to plunk carbon back into the Earth where it came from by planting trees and actively sequestering carbon.
They said it couldn’t be done, but Kent Rathwell created the first zero-emissions wild bird seed company and then created the longest green highway in the world where you could charge your electric vehicle for free.
First came evidence-based decision making, then Halifax declared a climate emergency and now HalifACT 2050 is their plan to get to carbon neutrality by 2050.
