Environment and Energy

Our peak oil premium

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:52:34 +0000

Pull Quote:

The world’s cheap and easy-to-get oil is disappearing fast. So, on average, each additional barrel requires more work, more complex technology, more environmental risk to get and refine than the last.

Peak oil – it’s history, right?

Everything has changed so fast.

Two years ago, the world was facing an intractable oil crisis. “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear,” the U.S. Defence Department declared in a major report. “A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity.”

CIGI experts available to comment on UN report on global sustainability

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:36:36 +0000

WATERLOO, CANADA — January 30, 2012 — To provide comment and context on the United Nations’ High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (UN GSP), The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) will have the following experts available to media:

UN Panel Calls for Integration of Environment into International Economic Reforms

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:16:47 +0000

Pull Quote:

A country with a bankrupt environment is no more capable of success than one whose economy is broke.

A quarter of a century ago, the Brundtland Commission outlined the concept of sustainable development for the first time. It began its rather sobering report with the memorable phrase, “The Earth is one but the world is not,” to describe the interactions between the world’s environmental and economic and political systems. Sustainable development was to provide a new paradigm for economic growth, social equality and environmental sustainability.

Global Sustainability: Pursuing the Elusive Prize

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:08:06 +0000

Pull Quote:

Reforming financial markets so they play their historic role of investing in a resilient, sustainable economy for future generations is a notably brave feature of the panel’s message.

As the world’s political and business leaders head home from the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is right asking which of the world’s toughest challenges were identified, let alone solved, on the “Magic Mountain.” Timely, then, that today the UN launches the report of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability.

Searching for Disruption, Sustainability and Transformation at Davos

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:26:08 +0000

Pull Quote:

The Occupy movement spread to 900 cities last year in a matter of days, but its impact is slow and not as grand as I and many others would wish. The same for the Arab Spring.

Heads of state and leading figures from business and academia gather this week in Davos, Switzerland to “shape global, regional and industry agendas,” as part of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting.

Public panel opens CIGI conference on scientific policy implications for geoengineering

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:24:46 +0000

Ottawa and Waterloo, Canada – January 16, 2011 – The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is hosting the public panel Geoengineering Our Climate: Science, Ethics and Governance, from 5:30 to 7 pm, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at Ottawa’s Lord Elgin Hotel (details below).

2012: the year of the unreasonable

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:31:01 +0000

The sustainable business circle's golden rule is to keep one's chin up, point out the good news, and duck the hard questions by appealing to an unknowable future. Being a party pooper is considered impolite, except perhaps through the majesty of John Elkington's very English metaphors.

CIGI Experts Predict Global Governance Challenges for 2012

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:57:26 +0000

Pull Quote:

"The Mexicans are rather keen to have sustainable development on the G20 agenda. But we’ve seen what G20 summits are like — if something happens the week before, the whole agenda’s gone."

Tumultuous economic conditions, regional security crises and consistent summit malaise challenged the world’s global governance mechanisms in 2011. As we enter a new year, the global community will face ongoing and new challenges that test how the world comes together to find and enact solutions.

Analysis: Canada's Kyoto withdrawal began when Bush bolted

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:17:09 +0000

OTTAWA - Canada's widely criticized withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol ends a decade-long saga that began in earnest when former President George W. Bush walked away from the global climate change treaty in 2001.

The close links between the two economies, and the fact the United States has a population almost 10 times larger than that of Canada, meant that Ottawa ultimately felt it had to follow Washington's lead and ignore the diplomatic fallout.

Climate summit was a pathetic exercise in deceit

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:33:28 +0000

Pull Quote:

The whole climate-change negotiation process and the larger political discourse surrounding this horrible problem is a drawn-out and elaborate exercise in lying – to each other, to ourselves, and especially to our children.

It was an “emperor-has-no-clothes” moment. The 17-year-old youth delegate rose before the assembled participants at the Durban climate conference and looked them straight in the eye.

“I speak for more than half the world’s population,” declared Anjali Appadurai of Maine’s College of the Atlantic. “We are the silent majority. You’ve given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not at the table. What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists? Corporate influence? Money?”