It’s a special time of year as we prepare to gather with our friends and family. But sometimes Holiday parties can get awkward when someone brings up the state of the planet or other more specific environmental issues, and not everyone is on the same page. We’ve prepared a little guide to help you navigate those (sometimes difficult) discussions. Because it’s important to talk about these issues!
As we’re all still coming to terms with the results of the U.S. election, our Director of Government Relations has started a series of blog posts to help us understand how we got here, what impacts there may be on the environmental movement, and how we can avoid sliding backwards. Putting our heads in the sand will not help us address the climate crisis.
During these destabilizing times, Équiterre has a crucial role to play. We’re soldiering on with our important work to propose responsible solutions to the many environmental challenges we’re facing.
One of the biggest impacts that we can all have at home is to be strategic about what we put on our plates. If you’re up for trying a few new recipes for your Holiday gatherings, our new initiative, Shop Smarter, Eat Better has some great ideas for you. These healthy, affordable and environmentally-responsible recipes will also give you an opportunity to create awareness among your guests!
Mobility
Energy savings wiped out by increasingly larger vehicles
With automotive engines becoming increasingly energy efficient over the past number of years, it’s been easy for people to justify buying a larger vehicle with a more efficient engine. However, our new report shows that between 2010 and 2022, the growing popularity of large vehicles (SUVs and pickups) in Canada has cancelled out 80% of these fuel economy improvements. In other words, the benefits of more efficient engines are being wiped out by the increasing size and therefore fuel consumption of these vehicles.
This dangerous trend demonstrates why the automotive industry must realign their range of vehicles towards smaller, less polluting models, and why the government must better regulate the industry.
Climate
Équiterre at COP29 to talk about climate adaptation
After a year of record heat and extreme weather events in Canada and across the world, Équiterre lead a panel on climate adaptation at COP29 in Azerbaijan in November. To protect people, ecosystems and infrastructure from the ravages of climate change, climate adaptation is essential.
A few days before COP29 began, the Canadian government announced its draft regulations to cap pollution from the oil and gas sector - an important step to reduce the emissions from Canada’s most polluting industries. And during COP29, Quebec committed to eliminating fossil gas from buildings by 2040. But planetary heating is a global threat, and the international negotiations are critical to rally the necessary efforts to stop the climate crisis from getting worse. Canada, as one of the world’s largest per capita GHG emitters, has an important role to play. The disappointing outcome of COP29 falls very short of what’s needed.
“The fossil fuel industry has no place at COP, but once again its resounding voice wreaked havoc on the international negotiations. And it will continue to wreak havoc while our governments subsidize the fossil fuel industry with public funds. Enough is enough. This money must be redirected to fund the things that we really need - public health, social programs, renewable energy and climate adaptation.” - Charles-Edouard Têtu, Climate Policy Analyst
Agriculture Even better than magic beans: local beans!
Small but mighty, beans are a gold mine of nutritional value, and a great source of protein. Eating legumes like beans can help reduce our meat consumption, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the meat sector.
But what makes the dried bean even more interesting is that it’s grown right here in Quebec, and the crop has regenerative benefits for our agricultural soil. Developing the bean sector is therefore very promising on many levels.
That’s exactly what Équiterre’s Bean Project has been working to do over the past year, with the goals of reducing the distances travelled by our food, encouraging our local farmers and improving our soil health and our food autonomy.
But developing a local network for beans is no mean feat. Farmers have to see that there are stable, profitable markets in Quebec for local beans to help convince them that taking on a new crop will be worth it. As a consumer, you can help us accelerate this transition.
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