Tausi Insider

A fisherman on a boat as a power plant emits smoke in the background in Jakarta, Indonesia. Irwin Fedriansyah/The Associated Press Indonesia signed deals with international lenders and major nations on Tuesday that will bring billions of dollars in funding to help the country increase its use of renewable energy and reduce its reliance on coal. The $20-billion agreement was announced on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Called a Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP, it is meant to help developing countries reduce their reliance on fossil fuels such as coal and gas that cause carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. It’s an important step for Indonesia, a major exporter of coal that has abundant potential for developing cleaner energy. “In today’s world, climate change is a global emergency,” said Luhut Binsar Pandajaitan, Indonesia’s co-ordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs. “Indonesia has an important role to play in avoid...

Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s renewables affiliate is committing to invest up to US$700-million in a newly formed U.S. recycling business, targeting recycled materials as part of the push to cut global carbon emissions. Brookfield Renewable Partners LP has invested an initial US$200-million for a minority stake in Circular Services, a new company that is majority owned and managed by New York-based investment firm Closed Loop Partners. Brookfield Renewable is also committing to invest another US$500-million to help Circular Services grow. The investment is being made through the US$15-billion Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is co-led by vice chair and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and Brookfield Renewable CEO Connor Teskey. It is Brookfield’s first fund focused on investments intended to help speed the transition to a net-zero economy. Circular Services owns and operates a dozen municipal recycling facilities in the United States. And it has large municipa...

Executives at companies across 20 major economies see the Ukraine conflict speeding up the pace of the transition to cleaner energy, rather than slowing it down, a survey by Britain-based law firm Ashurst found. The findings counter fears that bans on Russian natural gas following its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special operation, are driving up demand for coal for heat and power generation and hampering investment in wind and solar power. “The need to ensure greater energy security made evident by the crisis is likely to lead to a quicker energy transition, not a slowdown,” Ashurst said in a report released on Wednesday. More than 75 per cent of 1,999 senior executives surveyed across Group of 20 (G20) countries expected the Ukraine conflict would speed up energy transition in their country, while 12 per cent predicted it would slow transition, Ashurst said. Companies and banks were driving investment in renewable power, particularly in such countries as Brazil, India ...

Plants, insects and other animals are vanishing at an alarming rate. Seventy per cent of global biodiversity has been lost in the past 50 years. HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images Emmanuel Nyirinkindi is vice president of cross-cutting solutions at the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Growing up in Uganda, I was always fond of the sounds of grey-crowned cranes, our national bird. Hearing their sounds grow fainter as their very existence is threatened saddens me. Some wetlands where the cranes go to breed are being contaminated by pesticides or drained for farmland. What I’ve noticed is not unique. Now I call Washington home, and it’s startling to think that almost three billion birds have disappeared in North America in the past half century, from forests, from grasslands, even from backyards. The natural world is growing quieter, as species silently disappear one by one. It is not only birds on the decline. Plants, insects and other animals are vani...

An estimated 300 jobs in British Columbia will likely be gone by the end of the year as Canfor Pulp Products CFX-T closes the pulp line at its Prince George pulp and paper mill. The Vancouver-based company made the announcement about the permanent closure Wednesday, blaming a lack of fibre for its pulp operations. The Canfor statement said the specialty paper facility at the mill will stay open. Canfor Pulp CFP-T president Kevin Edgson said the company will begin an “orderly wind-down process” over the next few months and expects to close the pulp line by the first quarter of 2023. He said Canfor will be working to support affected employees through the transition. B.C. Premier David Eby said Thursday the government is deploying a crisis response team to Prince George in an effort to support those people and their families who are losing their jobs. “This is obviously devastating news for those 300 individuals who have lost their jobs for their families, these are people with mortgag...

Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix announces a multi-year initiative focused on Indigenous communities near the company's oil sands operations in northern Alberta, at a news conference in Calgary, on Jan. 30, 2020. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press The CEOs of some of the biggest oil sands companies in Alberta say transitioning their work force for a net-zero emissions future isn’t about cutting jobs, but is about creating them. Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix CVE-T says the consortium of oil sands behind an alliance to decarbonize their companies estimates that reaching their goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 will create 35,000 jobs. Derek Evans, CEO of MEG Energy MEG-T, says he is actually worried that Canada doesn’t have the labour force needed to get the decarbonizing job done. Their comments in an interview with The Canadian Press this week come as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is pushing back against Ottawa’s plans to introduce “just transition” legislation to oversee the move to cut car...