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SETTING OUT THE ADVANCEMENTS – The Yukon government shared its progress on its Our Clean Future goals at a media briefing Monday. From left to right are government official Shane Andre, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker, Mary Tiessen, the government’s American sign language interpreter, Environment Minister Nils Clarke and government official Rebecca Turpin.
The Yukon government is reporting progress on cleansing the territory’s environment.
By Whitehorse Star on September 13, 2022
The Yukon government is reporting progress on cleansing the territory’s environment.
On Monday, the government released the second annual report on the progress made to implement Our Clean Future: A Yukon strategy for climate change, energy and a green economy.
The 2021 annual report details the government’s advancements on Our Clean Future goals and targets, including the 136 commitments outlined in the strategy.
As of last year, the rolling average of electricity generated from renewable resources on the Yukon’s main grid is 95.7 per cent.
“This number will continue to increase through the actions of Our Clean Future toward 97 per cent renewable by 2030,” the government said in a statement.
Greenhouse gases emissions, not including mining emissions, diminished by 12 per cent from 2019 to 2020.
Emissions for 2020 were three per cent above 2010 levels, government has calculated.
In 2021, two cabinet ministers told a media briefing Monday, key actions under Our Clean Future supported:
• the removal of plastic bags from circulation in the territory;
• engagement with youth on climate issues through the Yukon Youth Panel on Climate Change;
• a decline in emissions between 2019 and 2020; and
• the doubling of the amount of zero-emissions vehicles on the road.
The government said it has also completed its first territory-wide climate risk and resilience assessment, a key commitment under Our Clean Future.
The report is called Assessing Climate Change Risk and Resilience in the Yukon.
It outlines the impacts of climate change that pose the highest risk to Yukoners. It also identifies seven priorities where more action is needed to build resilience:
• Changing conditions on the land;
The report identifies where government and community actions are contributing to resilience, and where further action is needed.
“The report will be a key resource for the government to assess, adjust and accelerate climate actions under Our Clean Future and to ensure the Yukon is resilient to climate change impacts,” the government said.
Environment Minister Nils Clarke called climate change “one of our biggest challenges, and we all have a role to play in addressing the climate emergency we face.
“Together, with local and federal partners, we have made progress towards the targets set in Our Clean Future to address climate change and mitigate its impacts,’ Clarke added.
“While we have made progress, we know there is more work to do to meet our goals, including additional action to meet our 45 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030.
“Our work completing a climate risk and resilience assessment will further support our government to ensure the Yukon is resilient to climate impacts,” the minister said.
“After another challenging fire and flood season, I look forward to working with all Yukoners to address these priority areas, reduce our emissions and continue to build communities that are resilient to climate change.”
Of the 19 Our Clean Future actions that were due in 2021, the government completed 13, made progress on three, and updated and enhanced three.
“As we continue to see more severe weather events happening here in the territory, and around the world, we must work together to continue to take climate action,” said Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker.
“Our Clean Future is our strategy to reduce emissions and create communities that are more resilient.
“The Yukon’s green economy continues to grow from investments in local renewable energy, green infrastructure projects and the adoption of clean technologies like zero-emission vehicles and heat pumps.”
These annual reports, Streicker said, “help us assess our progress and identify improvements and opportunities to keep us on track to achieving our ambitious climate action targets.”
The government also added five new actions to Our Clean Future and updated and enhanced 13 other actions, including the three 2021 actions.
It said these changes were made to better reflect research and accelerate efforts to reach its 2030 goals.
These are reflected in the annual report.
“I am encouraged by the progress made in addressing climate change in the Yukon, and I look forward to the continued work that will help our territory meet its climate goals outlined in Our Clean Future,” said Economic Development Minister Ranj Pillai.
“By applying a climate change lens to the Economic Development Fund, we are supporting projects that contribute to environmental sustainability and climate resiliency,” Pillai added.
“Additionally, our investments in innovative technologies and renewable energy projects will provide new job opportunities for Yukoners.”
The territory, Pillai said, “also has an opportunity to play a significant role in the national response to climate change as a sustainably mined domestic source for critical minerals that are key to Canada’s transition to a greener economy.
“There is still more work to be done and I am confident that we are on the right path to achieving our goals.”
NDP MLA Emily Tredger commented today on the progress report.
“Their own report admits that decreases in GHG emissions are due to the (COVID-19) pandemic, not government action,” she said.
“That’s not even including mining emissions, which are getting special treatment compared to every other industry in the Yukon.
“On top of this, they seem to have lost sight of the fact that this plan only gets the Yukon one third of the way to our climate goals,” added Tredger, the MLA for Whitehorse Centre and the NDP’s critic for the environment.
“Most of the plan rests on electric vehicles, which haven’t been available due to supply chain issues,” she noted.
“When we ask about alternatives such as public and active transportation, we’ve heard it’s ‘up to municipalities.’
“We’re seeing excuses – what we’re not seeing is the bold urgent action that a climate crisis needs.”
It was clear to her, Tredger said, “that the Liberals had no plan to actually achieve climate targets, so we established the Yukon Climate Leadership Council through the Confidence and Supply Agreement.
“We are excited that their report will be released soon, and will be fighting hard for swift action on their recommendations.”
At the same time as renewing oil and gas leases, and inviting overpopulation, and building to accommodate unemployable drifters, and doing nothing about pan handlers and street drinking.
Folks...I am of the opinion that in the context of reality, there is more of it in professional entertainment wrestling than in politics. These political blowholes and their chicken little sycophants will not, can not, never could save us and our blue orb. Monty Python would not be successful today, because most of us are already in and support a Flying Circus. Way too many clowns ruling over us, one clown left the circus here. The other clown, today I will call it Mr. Dressup with many many Finagans. Well as far as that clown is concerned, it is unfortunately also the MC in our big tent (formerly known as Canada)...the show is just getting started. Join the international community of big tents full of clowns and pretenders of stuff with the global MC Klaus...eh? What could possibly happen, megalomania in the Fatherland was never an issue before was it? Megalomania with an aryan drone never tried a Great Reset, purge, or othering before have they...? Vote for idiots, they will save you! Worked real well I understand overseas in 1933, voting for idiots.
Nobody can rightly argue that clean air, and an unpolluted landscape are desirable targets. Electric bikes and small vehicles make some sense in that they displace the pollution to other places so the city folk can breath cleaner air in between tokes on their joints. Converting all tractor trailers to AA battery packs is unrealistic for a bunch of reasons though, so can we keep common sense in view or must it be tossed along with everything else which has made our lives enjoyable? And here's a bit more food for thought: C02, that terrible terrible poison and the awful evil carbon we are all made from, is actually heavier than air and therefore, the pollution from the evil internal combustion engines is settling back to the earth where it provides needed nutrients for plant-based life forms.. In fact, the origin of oil and gas is plant and animal life, in other words... fertilizer. Look it up! C02 is 50 percent heavier than the air we breath and is certainly not floating up above the atmosphere and blocking the escape of warm air from the earth. http://skulltripper.com/2022/09/10/the-premise/
To see al these govie workers sitting around bs'ing about how we need to double the EVs, get more windmills, more solar, is laughable. Anybody got a price tag on the Heckel Hill windmill mega project? I hear the road.....The Road, is upwards to 2 million. Those windmills, when done chomping fowl, will never have produced what was spent to install..what's the definition of insanity??
I wonder where the data is on the usage of these said chargers in areas like Stewart Crossing and the diesel backed gen sets on the dempster.
YG's Greenwashed Hypocrisy - The multi-million dollar short-term storage battery and EV batteries are neither Clean or Green. The spiraling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction- As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required could become a major issue in its own right Two other key ingredients, cobalt and nickel, are more dangerous and at a potentially huge environmental cost. Unlike most metals, which are not toxic when they’re pulled from the ground as metal ores, cobalt is “uniquely terrible,” Most cobalt comes from the Congo, where cobalt is extracted from the ground by hand, often using child labor, without protective equipment. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact Some people believe that toxic pollution and human rights abuse is OK as long as it's not in their back yard. Is that the hypocritical "Clean Future" you want?
Emily Tredger is all talk just like Kate White. They scream about how important the climate crisis is while opposing steps the government takes to reduce emissions. The NDP want to keep all of the unsupervised dumping sites open in Yukon which allows a free for all when it comes to all sorts of nasty chemicals and garbage. They also came close to killing the governments loan program which will help people upgrade the insulation of their home and other measures to help reduce emissions from buildings. They said that some kind of administrative burden or something was too costly. So in essence, the climate emergency takes a back seat to administrative costs. So yeah, climate change is important but takes a back seat to admin costs. Ha ha What ET is actually concerned about, is playing politics with our future. We could also talk about them supporting their NDP counterparts in BC and AB who are pro fracking and pro pipeline. Which is fine, but it shows the Yukon NDP are a bunch of hypocrites.
Until such times as real data gathering with scientific instruments to measure carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and more are used to determine the real state of our air quality and guide the future policies rather than computer modelling, Their forecasts will be nothing more than expensive calculated guesses. They say the science is settled, okay then show us the REAL science.
Man oh man, I can debunk this too easily.. and since when did we care about the opinions of kids... LOL! "engagement with youth on climate issues through the Yukon Youth Panel on Climate Change;"
More science from the Marxists. Time to fight back. Vote them out everywhere. Send it back to Cuba and the other Communist countries. Doesn't belong in Canada. Pierre Poilieve has a big job to do.
Sitting in an electric vehicle for long periods of time will eventually cause cancer and other illnesses. It's already been proven that living under or near electric lines and cables is unhealthy. Maybe everybody should wear rubber clothes.
The real problem is not the emissions generated in the Yukon, it’s the emissions generated in china from the production of all the everyday goods we use including batteries for electric cars that we outsource to them and are subsequently manufactured using very inefficient cheap coal fired power plants. All of the solar panels YG has installed have been made in china with who knows what as a carbon footprint. The fact that BC is the leading exporter of coal in North America is so hypocritical it’s hard for me to believe they would continue to do it. Let’s try and solve the real problems instead of all the virtue signalling.
I am at a loss to understand how a per capita emission figure can be acquired when it excludes mining emissions. One thing I think we all agree on is there is no doubt what has been cleansed is the interior of our wallets, partly caused by carbon tax. Wind and sun are renewable but the windmills and solar panels aren't, no more than the batteries in electric vehicles that Juniper refers to; all of the components need mining to produce them so the logic is one step forwards and two backwards.
I guess that explains the big ass Canadian government plane at the airport……
YGs Greenwashed Hypocrisy - Their multi-million dollar short-term storage battery made in Asia is neither Clean or Green. The spiraling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction- As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required could become a major issue in its own right According to a report by Friends of the Earth, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination. In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, locals claim that lithium operations have contaminated streams used by humans and livestock, and for crop irrigation. In Chile, there have been clashes between mining companies and local communities, who say that lithium mining is leaving the landscape marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with contaminated water with an unnatural blue hue. Two other key ingredients, cobalt and nickel, are more... danger ... and at a potentially huge environmental cost. Cobalt is found in huge quantities right across the Democratic Republic of Congo and central Africa, and hardly anywhere else. The price has quadrupled in the last two years. Unlike most metals, which are not toxic when they’re pulled from the ground as metal ores, cobalt is “uniquely terrible,” according to Gleb Yushin, chief technical officer and founder of battery materials company Sila Nanotechnologies. “One of the biggest challenges with cobalt is that it’s located in one country,” he adds. You can literally just dig up the land and find cobalt, so there’s a very strong motivation to dig it up and sell it, and a a result there’s a lot of motivation for unsafe and unethical behaviour.” The Congo is home to ‘artisanal mines’, where cobalt is extracted from the ground by hand, often using child labour, without protective equipment. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact Some people believe that toxic pollution and human rights abuse is OK as long as it's not in their back yard. Is that the hypocritical "Clean Future" you want?
Liberals just never stop patting themselves on the back. I do not believe a word of this report. Tredger, the MLA for Whitehorse Centre and the NDP’s critic for the environment is pushing electric cars. He does know what the cost of electricity is? and they conveniently forget to mention that electric cars are not environmentally friendly. Do people just not want to know about lithium? I've said it before.. i'm sick of these lying ********s.
And how much is that 1.3% from 95.7% to 97% going to cost? How many useless solar panels will be put up and how much will be given in kick backs to the well off who are "contributing" to the grid in summer. This government continues to do the easy thing and pat themselves on the back.
There so many facts here that are not true in science in real terms. Sending out the same unactual message on climate change such as: Trees need carbon to create nitrogen 79% what isin our atmosphere and 20% oxygen so all living life can have a healthy life, right John S? Yukon has over s million trees producing what Yukoners need to live on.
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