Media Coverage

Recent news coverage about IISD

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Montreal hosts global climate adaptation conference amid unseasonable heat

This year Montreal saw many extreme climate events: deep freezes, an ice storm, tornado warnings, torrential rain, flooding, forest fires up north, and extreme heat. The first week of October is bringing more heat to the city with temperatures of up to 32 degrees with the humidex. This is all happening as the city is hosting the largest global conference on adaptation to climate change. Over 1,500 global experts in climate change adaptation, along with politicians and citizens, are at the Palais des congrès this week for the seventh edition of the Adaptation Futures conference.

IISD in the news

CityNews

October 3, 2023

What the world would look like without fossil fuels

In any given year, the world produces staggering quantities of fossil fuels. Roughly 36.5 billion barrels of oil. Over 8 billion metric tons of coal. The United States alone extracts and processes over 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas. When those fossil fuels are burned, planet-warming gases are released. But what would happen if the world did suddenly stop extracting fossil fuels? And what does that mean for attempts to phase out something humanity has depended on for centuries?

IISD in the news

The Washington Post

September 30, 2023

Can a $20 billion bet wean Indonesia off coal?

Less than a year after it was announced, a $20-billion bet to wean Indonesia off coal is mired in controversies over financing and the construction of new plants to power industry. The Just Energy Transition Partnership for Indonesia was unveiled last November and follows a model first trialed in South Africa, with rich countries pledging funds for the developing world's energy transition.

IISD in the news

AFP News

September 26, 2023

Experts concerned over EU due diligence law's impact on Global South

Experts have welcomed the proposed EU law to hold companies accountable for adverse impacts along their entire value chain, but have also raised concerns about the negative impacts the new due diligence rules could have on economies of the Global South. The proposed corporate sustainability due diligence directive seeks to ensure that large EU companies and businesses operating in the EU identify, prevent, and mitigate their adverse impacts on human rights and the environment throughout their value chain. But the law has also raised concerns over the unintended consequences it could cause to economies in the global south.

IISD in the news

Euractiv

September 25, 2023

Canada, a giant oil producer, urges others to end fossil fuel subsidies

Canada is pushing the United States and other major economies to follow through on pledges to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies, which have soared despite the growing threat of climate change. Such subsidies hit records last year, according to several watchdog groups, including one that estimated that major world economies—members of the G-20 cooperation forum—surpassed $1 trillion in subsidies for the first time in 2022. That’s a fourfold increase over subsidy levels in 2010, the year after G-20 nations agreed to phase out support for fossil fuels.

IISD in the news

The Washington Post

September 22, 2023

Carbon sequestration among a plethora of carbon delusions

A recent report sponsored by an environmental advocacy group and think tank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, examined carbon capture and storage. The new research draws on available data from about 30 currently operating commercial carbon capture facilities globally, including a handful in Canada.

IISD in the news

Frontier Centre for Public Policy

September 21, 2023

What happens to Canada after oil demand peaks?

What will the energy transition mean for Canada's oil and gas sectors, which have long been a powerhouse of the country's economy? Aaron Cosbey, a senior associate and economist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, lays out what he sees happening to demand for fossil fuels in the next decade, and how the country can navigate the transition to minimize economic disruption.

IISD in the news

Financial Post

September 20, 2023

Can the cotton industry protect its workforce in a changing climate?

Cotton is ubiquitous in human lives, with approximately half of all textiles made of the material, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. But the sector's sustainability issues stand to be exacerbated by increased risk to extreme heat, drought, floods and wildfires already being caused by climate change, Forum for the Future warned in a 2021 report. Besides cutting yields, it will also affect the well-being of those involved in the supply chain.

IISD in the news

Reuters

September 18, 2023

Don’t write off the Just Energy Transition Partnership just yet

When it was announced at COP26 in 2021, South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership seemed to offer an answer to a weighty question: how can we not only usher in large-scale renewables investment into developing countries, but also rapidly wind down their coal sectors? However, in the nearly two years since the JETP was announced, critics have taken issue with everything from the way the JETP packages are funded to the pace at which they are being rolled out.

IISD in the news

Energy Monitor

September 18, 2023

Alberta and Canada are talking about claiming emissions reduction credits for exporting fossil fuels

Alberta and Ottawa are searching for ways to claim credit for potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in countries that swap their coal-fired power plants with Canadian gas, documents obtained by Canada's National Observer reveal. Energy discussions between Canada's largest oil-producing province and the federal government are taking place over the next year. A draft text of the working group's terms of reference shows the two sides, which are usually at odds over climate policy, are teaming up to explore how to use Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to the fossil fuel sector's advantage.

IISD in the news

Canada's National Observer

September 14, 2023

Integrating Sustainability Standards in South–South Trade Policies Can Improve Producers' Livelihoods in Developing Countries, New Report Shows

Trade between developing countries and regions—known as "South–South trade"—is growing rapidly. In the past couple of decades, its value has grown almost tenfold, from USD 600 billion in 1995 to USD 5.3 trillion in 2021. A new report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development explores how governments in developing countries are using voluntary sustainability standards in their trade policies to ensure this growth benefits small-scale producers, communities, and the environment.

IISD in the news

Farmers Review Africa

September 14, 2023

Sustainability Initiatives Falling Short for Sugar Cane Farmers in Developing Countries

Sugar cane is considered one of the most valuable agricultural commodities in the world and provides livelihoods for more than 100 million people in 120 countries. But many sugar cane farmers in developing countries live in poverty—and initiatives aimed at supporting them are falling short of their potential. A new report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development explores recent market trends in the sugar cane sector, what these trends mean for producers in developing countries, and what voluntary sustainability standards, governments, and private sector actors can do to improve farmers' incomes.

IISD in the news

Farmers Review Africa

September 13, 2023

How the G20 Declaration Sets the Pace for Enhanced Climate Action at COP28 in December

The G20 summit in New Delhi has set the pace for enhanced climate action at COP28, as it refreshed its resolve to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as per the Paris Agreement. The high-profile event ended with a soft commitment from the world's largest emitters to triple their renewable energy capacity by 2030.

IISD in the news

News18

September 13, 2023

New Report Finds Carbon Capture And Storage Far Too Expensive

A new report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development found carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to be very expensive in Canada. According to the report, which focuses on carbon capture in the context of Canada's oil and gas industry, the climate solution’s persistently high costs are rooted in the "high design complexity and the need for customization."

IISD in the news

Carbon Herald

September 11, 2023

G20 Summit Agreement Fails To Strengthen Coal Phase-Down Even As Data Show High Per Capita Coal Emissions

As world leaders gather in New Delhi for the Group of 20 (G20) Summit–with 19 member countries and the European Union–data show that a majority of the group still has very high per capita coal power emissions. At the summit, countries agreed to "pursue further efforts" to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius, agreeing to "encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally" but the G20 New Delhi Leaders Declaration included no new commitment on phasedown of coal power or on phasing down all fossil fuels.

IISD in the news

IndiaSpend

September 10, 2023

G20 aims to triple renewable energy capacity; no mention of fossil-fuel phase-out

G20 countries on Saturday said they will aim to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and expedite efforts to phase down coal power in line with national circumstances but did not commit to a phase-out of all polluting fossil fuels, including oil and gas.

IISD in the news

Deccan Herald

September 9, 2023

Lake lessons from East Africa

On a sweaty Friday afternoon, a few hours delayed, and with one suitcase fewer than when I set off, I finally landed down in the 'Peg after a 20-hour journey from my homeland of Kenya. For years, I had been aching to visit the province of 100,000 lakes. While, lamentably, I won’t be able to visit them all on this trip, seeing Lake Winnipeg in person was an unbridled delight, as was jumping in an SUV and heading over to another famed freshwater must-see of the region—the IISD Experimental Lakes Area.

IISD in the news

Winnipeg Free Press

September 8, 2023

CCS Can't Compete with Renewables, Won't Deliver by 2030, Report Finds

Carbon capture and storage may have an important role to play in hard-to-decarbonize sectors like iron and steel, but won't pay off for oil and gas companies without continuing government subsidies, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) concludes in an analysis released this week.

IISD in the news

The Energy Mix

September 8, 2023

Report finds carbon capture's 'stubbornly high' prices are likely here to stay

Canada's oil and gas industry says costly technology it plans to use to reduce its climate footprint requires more investments from the federal government. If governments lend a hand now, the industry maintains the technology will become more affordable over time as more projects proceed, but a new analysis casts doubt on that claim. "Carbon capture and storage is expensive, and the costs are not likely to come down in the timeframe needed to meet our climate targets," said Laura Cameron, one of the report's three authors and a policy adviser for the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

IISD in the news

Canada's National Observer

September 7, 2023

Carbon capture projects are too costly, have ‘questionable’ benefits, report finds

Technology the oil industry is counting on to reduce emissions–carbon capture and storage–is too expensive and difficult to deploy quickly enough to help Canada meet its climate commitments, a global environmental think tank says. Relying on carbon capture and storage to cut greenhouse gases from oil and gas production will mean large public subsidies for projects that are unable to compete on costs against expanding renewable energy sources, rendering the benefits "questionable," the International Institute for Sustainable Development said in a report released Thursday.

IISD in the news

The Globe and Mail

September 7, 2023