Water use by the oil sands has been one of the top environmental issues in Alberta for more than five years. Alberta Environment's recently released plan for managing water withdrawals from the Athabasca River does not protect the river from long-term ecological impacts due to oil sands development. This is the conclusion of our latest report. (More under Hot Off The Press)

Read Down to the Last Drop: The Athabasca River and Oil Sands.

On December 9, 2005 the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) delivered its advice on how Ontario should meet its electricity needs. A review by the Pembina Institute concludes that the OPA’s recommendations are based on a flawed analysis and are inadequate to provide for Ontario’s future electricity needs. Instead, review author Mark Winfield says Ontario needs an aggressive energy efficiency and productivity strategy, and the continued rapid development of low-impact renewable energy sources. (More under Hot Off The Press.)

Read the media release
Read Pembina’s response to the OPA’s recommendations.

The Pembina Institute has produced a new website to provide easy access to all our media releases and publications on the climate change issue. The site details our work to monitor the federal government’s implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, to make the case for deep long-term cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to obtain effective regulation of industrial GHG emissions, as well as other climate change work at Pembina. The site will be continuously updated, so check back often!

Visit www.pembina.org/climate-change

Reforms being proposed to the province's land-use planning laws have the potential to dramatically improve land-use planning in Ontario, says a coalition of Ontario environmental organizations that includes the Pembina Institute. For example, the plan allows municipalities to set energy efficiency and other environmental sustainability design requirements in buildings and even entire neighbourhoods.
The groups cautioned that while the proposal represents a big step forward in reforming Ontario's land-use planning system, further amendments are necessary to make the hearing process for proposed changes to municipalities more accessible, fair, efficient and accountable.

Read the media release.

The Alberta government could lead the province into a more sustainable future by improving the accounting procedures it uses to measure progress and well-being. That's the opinion of economist Amy Taylor of The Pembina Institute, who has just completed a study of the methods used in Alberta to measure long-term sustainability. The new system should distinguish between expenditure that contributes to well-being and that which detracts from it. This is in contrast to current indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product, which counts all expenditure, even it is associated with environmental disasters, car crashes or crime. (More under Hot Off The Press.)

Read the report

On February 13, one year after the Kyoto Protocol went into force as international law, the Pembina Institute published a full-page ad in The Hill Times, a weekly newspaper widely read by members of Parliament. The ad reminds Canadian politicians that Canada needs to urgently take action to cut emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

See it here!

Planet Organic Market, one of Canada's leading retailers of organic and natural foods, has become a part of the growing number and variety of businesses harnessing wind power. The company decided to ramp up environmental efforts by purchasing wind power for all of its computers and cash registers. Their purchase of 24 megawatt-hours of wind energy reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 20 tonnes — equivalent to taking about 5 cars off the road for an entire year.

Read the media release.

This document reviews the Supply Mix Advice Report released by the Ontario Power Authority in December 2005. The Power Authority recommended investments of up $83 billlion in new electricity supply in Ontario. The Pembina Institute's submission challenges many of the assumptions underlying the OPA's recommendations.

Free download.

Down to the Last Drop is the first in a series of issue papers examining the environmental implications of Canada's oil sands operations. The report authors examine Alberta Environment’s recently released plan for managing water withdrawals from the Athabasca River and concludes that it does not protect the river from long-term ecological impacts due to oil sands development.

Free download

The Alberta government’s Measuring Up reports, the Pembina Institute’s Alberta Genuine Progress Indicator, Sustainable Calgary’s State of Our City reports and the Canadian Index of Wellbeing are important indicator initiatives underway in Alberta. This report reviews and compares these important indicator frameworks and identifies future directions for indicator developments in Alberta.

Free download.