Does nuclear energy have the potential to address the climate crisis? Pembina's response is an unequivocal "no". When the major stages of nuclear energy production are considered (from uranium mining through to dealing with radioactive waste) it is clear that one serious problem is simply traded for another.

Our recent study Nuclear Power in Canada: An Examination of Risks, Impacts and Sustainability concludes that no other energy source combines the generation of a range of conventional pollutants and waste streams — including heavy metals, smog and acid rain precursors, and greenhouse gases — with the generation of extremely large volumes of radioactive wastes that will require care and management over hundreds of thousands of years.

The combination of these environmental challenges, along with security, accident and weapons proliferation risks, are not shared by any other energy source and place nuclear energy in a unique category relative to all other energy supply options.

Pembina is working to maximize the use of renewable energy federally and in key provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.

To help communicate some of this work and provide useful information to people working in the renewable energy sector or interested in learning more about renewable energy, Pembina has launched a new renewable energy website, A Sustainable Energy Future. The site features information on the sources and benefits of renewable energy, renewable energy policy and progress in Canada and around the world, and an overview of Pembina's role in keeping the vision of a renewable future marching ahead.

It's not only Albertans who are losing out on oil sands revenues—all Canadians are paying the price for an outdated royalties and tax structure.

The royalty return to Albertans for each barrel of oil has dropped by more than 30% and the federal government has lost as much as $1.65 billion due to tax breaks to the oil sands industry. This extremely profitable industry is no longer in need of taxpayer support. Find out more in our report Thinking Like an Owner.

This year's Kyoto Protocol negotiation session, held in Nairobi, Kenya, revealed deep concern from the international community about Canada's abandonment of the Kyoto climate change treaty. While the federal government says it is still part of the Kyoto process, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has no plans to meet Canada's greenhouse gas reduction target. This stance drew criticism from other nations in Nairobi, and resulted in the dubious honour of several "Fossil of the Day" awards for Canada. These satirical awards from environmental groups presented in Nairobi were granted to the nations whose behaviour was judged least helpful in addressing climate change.

Matthew Bramley, the director of Pembina's climate change program, traveled to Nairobi to take part in the second week of the conference. In late November, Dr. Bramley also testified at the House of Commons standing committee in favour of Bill C-288, the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act. This bill, presented by Montreal MP Pablo Rodriguez, would compel the government to meet its Kyoto targets.

In light of Ontario retreating from its plan to phase out coal, Pembina has updated its 1991 assessment of combustion technologies for electricity. Is coal any cleaner? Not according to the results of our recent analysis. Although there has been some advancement in coal technologies such as Integration Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), none of the coal technologies are as favorable in terms of environmental performance as natural gas. Although there are some opportunities to combine IGCC with carbon capture and storage technologies, this solution is unproven.

This study examines the environmental impacts of the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation in Canada through each of the four major stages of nuclear energy production: uranium mining and milling; uranium refining, conversion and fuel fabrication; nuclear power plant operation; and waste fuel management.

Full Report (130 pgs)

This report demonstrates that the current tax and royalty treatment of the oil sands is a bad deal for Albertans — the owners of the resource— and Canadians.

This technical review updates the Pembina Institute's 2001 publication A Comparison of Combustion Technologies for Electricity Generation, republished in 2004 as Appendix 4 in Power for the Future: Towards A Sustainable Electricity System in Ontario.

"The most important thing for solving climate change is new technology." Versions of this statement are common in business leaders' commentary on climate change. But what if this thinking was actually a diversion from what most needs to be done to solve the problem?

Nairobi - La conférence des Nation unies qui vient de prendre fin à Nairobi aura mis au grand jour un véritable gouffre entre l'urgence de lutter contre les changements climatiques et l'embourbement des gouvernements dans des négociations à l'allure glaciale.