"Winnipeggers deserve a pat on the back this Earth Day. A Winnipeg-based environmental think tank crunched the numbers in a city study which concludes we’re good at cutting down water and garbage, two key indicators of environmentally friendly cities. Winnipeg’s doing pretty well, the International Institute on Sustainable Development said in a statement Tuesday."
"Many developing countries subsidize gasoline and other fossil fuels to make them more affordable for consumers - subsidies that cost over $500 billion (460 billion euros) per year according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). That's four times as much as the subsidies for clean, renewable energy."
"The group known as the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform released a communique encouraging governments to prioritise the reform of fossil-fuel subsidies ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this year. The friends, with the support of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, are encouraging other governments to endorse the statement."
“Being resource rich is a challenge because there’s enormous potential for people to profit personally”, says Chris Beaton, Research and Communications Officer at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. “Political factions can grow around who-helps-who-get-rich and average citizens may not receive the full benefits of their country’s resources – or indeed, any of the benefits at all."