{"id":25322,"date":"2026-02-26T15:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/?post_type=rbc_tl&p=25322\/ev-spring-comes-after-winter"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:20:16","slug":"a-thousand-cuts-why-b-c-s-lumber-crisis-is-also-a-climate-challenge","status":"publish","type":"rbc_tl","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/climate-action-institute\/climate-crunch\/a-thousand-cuts-why-b-c-s-lumber-crisis-is-also-a-climate-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Crunch: A thousand cuts: Why B.C.\u2019s lumber crisis is also a climate challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u2794 Stick to net zero by 2050 or abandon it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2794 Some land sectors have a new emissions standard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2794 Canada makes a big nuclear push in Europe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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The signals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Could April 1 reset Canada\u2019s off-course climate trajectory?<\/strong> The Canadian Climate Institute\u2019s latest report<\/a> (which notes that Canada\u2019s climate targets are \u201coff course\u201d), suggests that strengthening measures such as industrial carbon pricing and oil and gas methane rules is critical to coming close to the targets. Both measures are part of the MoU<\/a> that Ottawa and Alberta agreed to hammer out by April 1. Together, these two policies could deliver an emissions-busting punch (see chart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Canada's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Should the world give up on net zero by 2050? <\/strong>U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright thinks so. He recently chastised the International Energy Agency (IEA) for its \u201cdestructive illusion\u201d of the 2050 goal<\/a>. Amid this friction, energy ministers at an IEA summit in Paris last week failed to agree on climate objectives. It’s true that the world\u2019s struggling to hit its net-zero targets, the UN projects<\/a>, as nations from Canada to Germany retreat from some of their more ambitious climate policies. But few are looking to cast aside net zero just yet. France and other European nations pushed back during the summit, noting that electrification remains a cornerstone of the bloc\u2019s economic policy. Meanwhile, Canada is expected to unveil its Climate Competitiveness Strategy, and China has already emerged as the world\u2019s first \u201celectro-state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has galloped ahead of competitors with a new electric work horse of the ocean. <\/strong>Fittingly, in the new Year of the Horse, China debuted ocean-going Ning Yuan Dian Kun<\/em>, featuring a battery capacity equivalent to 380 Tesla Model 3s. The test launch comes as the international Maritime Organization dithers on solving ocean pollution\u2014technology, as it so often does, is leading policy here. Crucially, the batteriescan be shore-charged and swapped like cargo container to ensure its 740 twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) load can sail further. It\u2019s a critical breakthrough: half the world\u2019s container fleet is under 3,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalents) and these vessels are considered the ocean\u2019s true work horses. An emissions dent in that space could make a real splash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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From lab to land: Can the new emissions standard deliver?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

– By Lisa Ashton<\/em>, Interim Head, Climate Action Action Institute<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first international standard for accounting for land-based sectors\u2019 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a true test of taking science from the lab to the field\u2014and of patience.Land-based sectors, including agriculture and forestry, finally have an international standard<\/a> for accounting, reporting and tracking GHG emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GHG Protocol\u2019s Land Sector and Removals Guidance (LSRG) is intended to standardize GHG inventory accounting across companies with land-based GHG emissions allowing for consistent disclosures, which is necessary to boost their credibility with investors and regulators around claims like farmers increasing soil carbon sequestration and tree planting that are at risk of miscalculating their real impacts given the complexity of tracking GHG sources and sinks in natural systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a long time coming, taking more than five years of debates, revisions\u2014and even a period of derailment\u2014to land the GHG Protocol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did it take so long? Simply put, it was due to tensions between climate accounting purists and industry trying to agree on a practical standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sticking points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n