Fight on Climate Change - China Reports 66-Percent Drop in Plastic Bag Use

In January 2008, China banned the use of free plastic bags that are less than 0.025 millimeters thick in shops, supermarkets, and sales outlets.  This article published on the Worldwatch Insititute discussed the report card after a year.

The results?  

• 40 billion bags were eliminated according to the government estimates
• but rural area seem to continue giving out free plastic bags

How do they do it?

• a fine of $10,000 yuan (around $1,650 CAD)
• a large troop of 600,000 inspector and a well funded inspection program

Side effect?

• shut down of a plastic bag manufacturing plant in China

I think overall it’s a great thing that the China government is banning plastic bags.  I was just in Shanghai for a few days and  I must confess that I get free plastic bags everywhere I went. Some of them were quite thick at shops, but I’m not sure how many actually meets the reg! But i guess it’s still a good start!

How a B.C. carbon tax rose from Dion’s ashes

A great article on the May 19 Globe and Mail analyzing how the BC Carbon Tax “’survived” the recent BC provincial election while Stéphane Dion Carbon Shift didn’t. Stewart Elgie, David Boyd, and Chris Waddell , three Law, Economics, and Journalism professors in Ottawa, have come up with six reasons:

1. Do not make Carbon Tax as the main issue for the election campaign (that’s what Dion and James did)
   • carbon tax is very important, but there are more important political issues
2. Keep it simple (not many understand the BC carbon tax; no one understands Dion’s carbon shift)
3. Timing is important (Dion brought up the carbon shift when oil is at record price; oil price was 1/3 of the height during the recent BC election)
4. Good communication! (Dion couldn’t get his point across; James couldn’t come up with solid carbon policy for her party)
5. Deep pocket (Dion had less marketing budget than Harper; James had less marketing budget than Campbell)
6. Best policy may not win! (Dion lost on a better policy; yet Campbell won with a better policy) - yes, the Carbon Tax is one of the best policies!!

Here’s one of the best quote about why Carbon Tax should not be the centre of the election campaign:

“If you are a travel company trying to sell a tropical vacation, you emphasize the beach, not the flight.”

- by Angus McAllister

This is it!!  We want a sustainable/low carbon future; let’s emphasize on the ends, and let’s work together to get there - through carbon tax, renewable energy investment, energy conservation, or whatever the means might be!

Canadians barely support carbon tax; don’t like B.C. carbon tax, poll finds

You probably already have read this article about a new poll published indicated that Canadians, especially British Columbians, do not like the BC carbon tax.  This type of news, especially during election time, always spreads extremely quickly.  Some results from the pool:

• 62% Quebecer respondents supports the carbon tax idea - Quebec currently has a carbon tax which is imposed on energy producers only;
• BC has less than 40% support on carbon tax, least in Canada and less than Alberta;
• 60% of respondents in British Columbia said the tax hasn’t done much to reduce fossil fuel use in the province;
• Almost 60% BC respondents said the carbon tax hadn’t motivated them to change their behaviour; and
• The support for BC style carbon tax gets less support in all provinces/territories.

I have many questions to ask the respondents, both those in BC and outside of BC.  To begin with, it’s hard to say how many people actually understand the BC “revenue neutral” carbon tax. My guess is - not many. The lack of understanding of BC’s revenue neutral carbon tax definitely would result in low support in “BC style” carbon tax.  Further, it’s very interesting to note that Quebecers have the highest support to the carbon tax idea, when they already have one!  There are several differences between BC and Quebec’s carbon tax, and one of them is that the carbon tax is imposed on energy producers, distributors and refiners only to pay for carbon they emit at a price of approximately 1/3 of what the carbon is priced at in BC in 2007.  Although the cost is not directly imposed on residents of Quebec, it is ultimately passed down to the rate payers.   Perhaps this is why less objections are recorded in Quebec. Finally, apparently 60% BC respondents believed that the BC revenue neutral carbon tax hasn’t motivated them and that the tax hasn’t effectively reduced fossil fuel use in the province.  Again I must say if we understand how the carbon tax works in BC,  one would be more motivated to change.  it’s like if you don’t understand the coupon, would you use it?  Regarding to the comment on the effect of BC’s carbon tax - i think we need to wait a bit to see the report card. I haven’t seen any data specifically states the province’s GHG emissions since the introduction of the carbon tax, and to be honest I would love to see it.  Before it is released (which i think it certainly will, unless Liberals loses this election), we should be skeptical but be aware that we need to know more before we draw the conclusion.  

Finally, another intriguing quote from the poll:

In a further on-line survey of 1,000 British Columbian voters, Harris-Decima found about as many respondents were angry with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell for introducing the tax as were angry with NDP Leader Carole James for opposing it.

Harris-Decima poll, 2009

What are your thoughts??

BC Election - Liberal’s Green under attacks

Cartoon by Gerry Hummel originally posted on Terrace Daily.  What are your thought of the BC Election so far?  Will Liberal’s Green policies be in jeopardy?

Canada’s top 30 greenest employers

Maclean’s has published, for the first time ever, Canada’s 30 greenest employers. I’m excited to see this but honestly quite disappointed on the highlights for these companies.  I have included the list of companies and the links go to their respective “green highlights”.  It’s great to have policies like: employees can control their light (sask power) and employees gets rebates from the employer for purchasing high efficiency furnaces and hybrid cars (; it’s also great to have written plans to reduce energy consumption or purchase certified wood whenever possible.  But I’m just a little disappointed that they didn’t find any company that does anything above and beyond.  Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was hoping to see policies that allows the employees to be part of the energy/ carbon footprint reduction activities at work through activities such as evaluating energy efficient heating/cooling systems (a huge carbon foot print for Canadian companies), reviewing building performance and develop energy efficiency measures, and last but not the least - publish and target GHG emissions and emission goals.  All these activities at work and then be translated to a smaller scale at home - big companies CAN make a big difference! I also think engaging employees’ families and communities at large is also a worthwhile activity that I didn’t see on the list…  But hey, i guess we start somewhere.  I hope next year the highlights will be more impressive.

Town of Banff
Bayer Inc.
B.C. Public Service
Busby, Perkins & Will Architects Inc.
Cascades Inc.
Enmax Corp.
Fairmont Hotels Inc.
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.
HOK Canada Inc.
IBM Canada Ltd.
IKEA Canada LP
Intrawest ULC at Whistler Blackcomb
Jacques Whitford Ltd.
KPMG LLP
McGill University
Nature’s Path Foods Inc.
New Flyer Industries Canada ULC
Rescan Environmental Services Ltd.
Royal Bank of Canada
SAS Institute Canada Inc.
Sapient Canada, Inc.
SaskEnergy Inc.
SaskTel
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto Hydro Corp.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.
University of Alberta
Vancity Group
Zerofootprint Inc.