As major oil and gas producers and exporters, Norway and Canada share a particular responsibility for confronting the planet’s existential climate threat. However, their different political, economic and cultural features have resulted in major differences in their climate policy track records.
Overall, Norway is a leader on climate change performance and Canada is a laggard. The 2021 Climate Change Performance Index ranks 61 countries on their progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, renewable energies and climate policy. Norway ranked eighth overall, while Canada was near the bottom in 58th place.
Both countries face epic challenges in weaning themselves from petroleum dependence and putting an end to exporting carbon emissions. Canada is a long way from winding down the oil and gas industry and implementing a green and inclusive recovery.
The Straits Times
China s carbon trading market hobbled by unanswered questions
Smoke billowing from a chimney of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Power Generator Company coal power plant in Shanghai on March 22, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Du Caicai and Chen Xuewan
PublishedFeb 8, 2021, 2:10 pm SGT
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President Áder: climate change is expected to be among the most important issues on the agenda of the new US administration headed by President Joe Biden.
In Depth: China’s Carbon Trading Market Hobbled by Unanswered Questions
A coal-fired power plant operating on March 28 in Bozhou, East China’s Anhui province. Photo: VCG
China has, for the first time, asked domestic companies to shoulder the responsibility for controlling the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by buying and selling emission quotas on a unified national carbon market.
The sheer scale of the problem could create the world’s largest carbon trading market, but big structural factors stand in the way.
Systemic issues in China’s power generation industry are likely to prevent companies from effectively participating in the national carbon market: the pressure that the added cost of carbon will put on the far-from-market-driven industry and the lack of an absolute cap on the amount of carbon that can be emitted under the program.