Rick Smith
While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Rick Smith.
New data shows the world is embracing renewable energy. Canada can’t follow Trump’s fossil fuel obsession
Gerald Butts is vice-chairman of Eurasia Group. Peter Nicholson and Rick Smith are chair of the board and president of the Canadian Climate Institute. The rest of the world is ramping up its transition to cleaner, more efficient, electric technologies, while the Trump administration is leading the United States down a dead-end street. That’s one rather glaring conclusion from the...
While Donald Trump clings to energy sources of the past, Mark Carney has a golden opportunity to move Canada forward
It’s easy for North Americans, inundated by Trump news, to start to assume that the entire world has lost interest in decarbonization. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are, in fact, too many examples to cite to illustrate the opposite. Here are just a few that show cutting emissions is now fully aligned with basic economics.
Climate disaster preparation is central to Canada’s economic security
Wildfires are once again devastating vast areas of our country – from the Prairies to British Columbia and into Northern Ontario. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate. Children are being transported to safety. Smoke is choking towns and cities hundreds of kilometres away. Local leaders are working around the clock, co-ordinating shelters, mobilizing emergency services and holding their...
These should be the climate change priorities for Canada's new government
The dust has settled on a unique federal election, and Canada will have a new government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, backed by a fresh mandate from the voters. And while the election was rightly dominated by how to deal with threats of U.S. economic aggression, climate and energy issues played an important supporting role in the campaign.
Canadian climate policy took some hits this year but finished strong
In the autumn of 2023, climate policy in Canada was feeling shaky: the vibes, as the kids say, were off. The draft Clean Electricity Regulations, released in August, were facing ill-founded criticisms from the Prairies; the consumer carbon price was proving a tough sell at a time when a box of cereal was costing $8. (Even though we all know...