Category Archives: Climate Change

The European Fuel Quality Directive: Will It Slay or Will It Go?

By: Matthew Ducharme

PDF Version: The European Fuel Quality Directive: Will It Stay or Will it Go? 

Document Commented On: Draft Implementing Measure to the European Union Fuel Quality Directive, February 23, 2012

On February 23, 2012, a European Union (EU) drafting committee voted on a draft law that discriminates against bitumen. This was the Draft Implementing Measure to the European Union Fuel Quality Directive (Implementing Measure). The Canadian press reported the vote ended in a stalemate. The press also noted that the law would be reconsidered in the late spring or early summer (National Post; CBC; Globe and Mail).

If the EU enacts the law it will have made a step in its fight against climate change, but the market for bitumen may be negatively impacted. If the law dies, Canada can expect a higher price on the sale of its bitumen in overseas markets. This note examines the February 23 vote within the EU law making process.

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CCS is now a CDM Project Activity

By: Ana Maria Radu

PDF Version: CCS is now a CDM Project Activity  

Decision Commented On: Decision -/CMP.7 Modalities and procedures for carbon dioxide capture and storage in geological formations as clean development mechanism project activities – adopted in December 2011

The 17th United Nations Climate Change Conference and the seventh meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) took place in Durban in November-December 2011 and brought hope again to the international community fighting climate change. The negotiations were reasonably successful and blended together the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, the Bali Action Plan, and the Cancun Agreements, concluding with a decision adopted by Parties that a universal legal agreement on climate change is to be adopted as soon as possible, but no later than 2015.

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Carbon Capture and Storage in Alberta: Draft Offset Protocol

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Carbon Capture and Storage in Alberta: Draft Offset Protocol

Document and Regulations Commented On: Government of Alberta, Draft Quantification Protocol for the Capture of CO2 and Storage in Deep Saline Aquifers, December 2011; Specified Gas Emitters Amendment Regulation, Alta Reg 139/2007, Alta Reg 127/2011 at pp. 448-451

While there has been some suggestion that the post-Stelmach provincial government is less enthusiastic than its predecessor about carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a silver bullet to deliver on provincial plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the province will go ahead with at least three of the four short-listed CCS projects that are to receive provincial government financial support: the Alberta Carbon Trunkline Project, Shell’s Quest Project and the Swan Hills Synfuels project. The one outstanding project is TransAlta’s (TAU) Project Pioneer. The province has yet to finalize a deal with TAU (and may never do so) but I gather that this has more to do with problems with the technology that TAU\Alstom has been proposing to use than any provincial cold feet.

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Why Canada Should Not Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Why Canada Should Not Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol 

Rumours abound that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol later this month. While Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent, will not confirm these rumours (Montreal Gazette, November 29, 2011) there is reason for thinking that withdrawal is being actively considered if not already decided on (see “Canada to pull out of Kyoto Protocol next month“?)

This post discusses four questions. First, what is the law pertaining to withdrawal from an international environmental agreement (MEA)? Second, why is withdrawal being considered and what other options are available? Third, what might be some of the ramifications of a Canadian withdrawal? And fourth, what is the legal nature of the current commitment: whom does it bind?

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Public Interest Standing and a Statutory Right of Appeal

PDF version: Public Interest Standing and a Statutory Right of Appeal

Case Considered: Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development v Alberta (Utilities Commission), 2011 ABCA 302

The Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development (“Pembina”) recently sought leave of the Alberta Court of Appeal to appeal the June 30, 2011 interim decision of the Alberta Utilities Commission (“AUC”) to approve the construction of a coal-fired power generation facility by Maxim Power Corp. (“Maxim”) in Alberta. In Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development v Alberta (Utilities Commission), 2011 ABCA 302, Madam Justice Patricia Rowbotham denies the Pembina application for leave to appeal. However in her reasons for decision, Justice Rowbotham adds to the Alberta jurisprudence on public interest standing. I will first describe the parameters of the leave application before discussing the standing matter.

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