Food prices set to rise in 2024, report says. But more ‘good news’ than year prior

Steve’s Note

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. There is no good news, it just isn’t as bad as they thought it could have been.

Canadians hoping for better food prices going into 2024 may not get their wish immediately, but as inflation cools, a new report suggests people could soon see some savings at the grocery store.

The 2024 Food Price Report released by Canadian researchers Thursday estimates food prices will increase by 2.5 to 4.5 per cent over the next year, which is down from the five to seven per cent forecast a year prior. It comes as the heads of two major grocers in Canada are testifying at the House of Commons agriculture committee about plans to stabilize food costs.

“That doesn’t mean that everything is going to be cheaper than it was before. It absolutely is not,” said Janet Music, one of the authors of the report, in an interview with Global News. “But it’s not going to be as expensive if things were going to keep going as they were.”

The report predicts food costs will go up across most categories, with the highest being among bakery, meat and vegetables — all showing an estimated five to seven per cent increase. However, the report expects dairy and fruits will see the lowest rise, at just one to two per cent. Restaurants are expected to see a modest increase of three to five per cent, while what the report calls “other” foods will rise about two to four.

Johnson said with input costs decreasing it has meant a drop in grain prices, while the declining oil prices has resulted in a drop in transportation costs for food as well. He said these factors, as well as other drops in costs like packaging, will likely help ease some of the shocking prices seen earlier this year.

“I think the good news for the consumer is that we’ll continue to see a deceleration of food prices in 2024, probably in the range of around three per cent throughout the year,” Johnson said. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10150504/canada-food-price-report-2024/ | globalnews.ca/news/10150504/ca…

#cdnpoli #inflation #FoodPrices #money #politics #meat #dairy

ALBERTA FIRST! Province Wins Fossil of the Day Award at UN Climate Conference

Alberta took home a coveted Fossil of the Day award, Quebec became co-president of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, and the Saskatchewan government faced a blistering hometown parody of its $764,000 COP28 pavilion as the first week of make-or-break climate negotiations in Dubai drew to a close.

Since 1999, civil society groups attending the annual United Nations climate conference have issued the daily fossil award to the country or negotiating bloc that has done the most to obstruct meaningful progress on emission reductions and climate adaptation. It’s rarely bestowed on anyone who isn’t a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), so provincial and state governments aren’t usually eligible.

But “today’s winner managed to outshine their peers and earn the rare honour, or should we say dishonour, of being a subnational government getting a fossil of the day,” organizers said in a release. “The province of Alberta, Canada has come to COP with one mission, to sabotage the negotiations.”

“I don’t think we could have won this award without being the deadliest death economy in all of the world, in all of Canada,” said Dr. Angele Alook of York University, Nehiyaw Iskwew and member of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, who accepted the award on Alberta’s behalf. “We like to poison the water, kill the forests, and violate Indigenous Peoples’ rights.”

The release cites Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who arrived at the COP last Friday in the company of a reported [pdf] 100 fossil industry delegates, as a politician whose “previous work as a fossil fuel lobbyist was good experience for disrupting Canada’s stance on the fossil fuel phaseout debate at COP. But she can’t take all the credit, she had the support of an extensive delegation of oil and gas representatives.”

CBC adds that the award was partly a response to Alberta’s decision to slap a seven-month moratorium on new solar and wind development earlier this year. The announcement sidestepped the concerns of some rural municipalities and cost the province an estimated C$33 billion in economic activity and 24,000 jobs, at a moment when Alberta was leading the country in renewable energy deployment.

“Alberta, we don’t want you to end up like your namesake, the long-extinct Albertosaurus,” Climate Action Network-International says in the release. “Listen to what people in your own province want—a plan to transition from dependency on volatile fossil fuels to the opportunities of clean energy, in a way that protects workers—or you’ll get left behind.” |Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/alberta-first-province-wins-fossil-of-the-day-award-at-un-climate-conference/ | theenergymix.com/alberta-first…

#COP28 #cdnpoli #abpoli #laughingstock #dishonour #DanielleSmith #obstruction #ClimateChange #lobbyist #poison #kill #emissions

Indigenous Nations and Environmental Advocates Denounce Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s Greenwashing at COP28

Indigenous nations impacted by pollution in the tar sands counter the Government of Alberta’s COP28 narrative of being a “clean energy leader”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Today, members from Indigenous communities downstream of the tar sands and environmental advocates held a demonstration in response to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s presence at COP28.

“Time and time again we have been told to trust that the Alberta Government and that government and industry have our best interests in mind,” shares Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action and member of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “Not only do they continually fail to protect our lands and honour our rights, but they actively put all of the people of Alberta at risk by undermining a just and equitable transition within our province. It’s always profits before people in the tar sands and it’s our communities that pay the ultimate price.”

This year in the tar sands region, a major toxic tailings leak, which was covered up for nine months, made international headlines. However, the Alberta Energy Regulator absolved itself of any responsibility and conducted an ‘independent’ inquiry which reduced the concerns being raised to a communications issue rather than a failure to uphold their duty to Indigenous peoples.

“The Government of Alberta is on a greenwashing tour at COP28. Premier Smith is attending COP28 to sing the praises of the fossil fuel industry. Yet she continues to turn a blind eye to the active seepage of toxic tailings into Indigenous communities’ lands and waters, including the recent Imperial Oil spill and cover-up,” said Aliénor Rougeot, Climate and Energy Program Manager at Environmental Defence. |Read more https://environmentaldefence.ca/2023/12/05/indigenous-nations-and-environmental-advocates-denounce-alberta-premier-danielle-smiths-greenwashing-at-cop28/ | environmentaldefence.ca/2023/1…

#cdnpoli #Indigenous #FirstNations #UCP #greenwashing #abpoli #AER #toxic

Fossils ‘Much Better at Capturing Politicians’ than Emissions, Gore Says, as Pressure Mounts on COP28 President

Fort McMurray, Alberta

Don’t trust the oil and gas industry to report its actual carbon pollution, said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who added that the man leading the COP28 climate talks in Dubai this week and next runs one of the “dirtiest” oil companies out there.

“They’re much better at capturing politicians than they are at capturing emissions,” Gore told The Associated Press in a sit-down interview.

The Nobel Prize-winning climate activist, author, filmmaker, and Climate Reality Project founder blasted COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who is also CEO of the national oil company of the host nation, United Arab Emirates. Gore said Al Jaber’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is “one of the largest and one of the dirtiest, by many measures, oil companies in the world.”

It’s also laying plans to increase oil drilling 42% by 2030, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported December 1, just a day before the COP28 secretariat trumpeted a voluntary methane reduction deal that brought together 50 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, including ADNOC.

In previous comments, AP writes, Al Jaber’s colleagues have dismissed media coverage detailing ADNOC’s expansion plans. The company in 2019 announced plans to expand its output to five million barrels per day.

In an hour-long, data-heavy presentation during the COP, Gore said: “The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company still claims to have no emissions from methane or anything else from the transport of oil and gas. Well, actually, they do. We can see them from space.”

“Why can we see the leakage from space if there are no leakages? Well, these were self-reported emissions,” Gore said. Then showing his data: “And this is the actual emissions. And these are the emissions last year, here.”

In his interview with AP, Gore repeatedly took aim at Al Jaber’s controversial appointment by the UAE to chair the COP. As summit host, the local government chooses the president whose duty it is to guide the talks to the most ambitious outcome negotiators can achieve.

“He’s a nice guy. He’s a smart guy. I’ve known him for years. But he has a direct conflict of interest,” Gore said. “And this isn’t some kind of nitpicking complaint. This goes to the heart of whether or not the world is going to have the ability to make intelligent decisions about humanity’s future.”

Gore added that Al Jaber’s “main job is the head of the oil company. And honestly, when I look at the massive expansion plan that they have to increase their production of oil, 50%, increase their production of gas” after the climate conference ends, he asked, “do you take us for his fools?” |Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/fossils-much-better-at-capturing-politicians-than-emissions-gore-says-as-pressure-mounts-on-cop28-president/ | theenergymix.com/fossils-much-…

#cdnpoli #world #COP28 #environment #AlJaber #UnitedArabEmirates #AlGore
#greenwashing #methane #emissions

COP28: Canada’s new methane plan eyes 75% slash in emissions

Canada has released a new draft plan that the government says will help cut methane emissions from the country’s oil and gas sector by at least 75 per cent.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault made the announcement Monday at the ongoing UN climate conference, also known as COP28, being held in Dubai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruDkpJXYPxY

Under the new draft regulations, Canada would eliminate the routine venting and flaring of oil and gas infrastructure, which can cause large amounts of methane to enter the atmosphere.

Methane doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, but it is better at trapping heat, so cutting methane emissions is considered one of the most effective ways of tackling climate change.

“We’re also establishing new performance standards for leak detection and repair, focusing on sites with the highest risk,” Guilbeault said.

That means facilities with equipment that has greater potential for emissions will be required to undertake more frequent inspections, according to a release from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The proposed rules would also see the introduction of an audit system, requiring one annual third-party inspection to validate company program results, ECCC said.

Alberta, Saskatchewan react to Ottawa’s plan

The new rules, which will start rolling out in 2027, were opposed by both Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who is also at COP28, called the proposed regulations “costly, dangerous, and unconstitutional.”

“Once again, the federal government is setting unrealistic targets and timelines. Infrastructure can only be updated as quickly as technology allows,” she said in a statement.

Smith said Alberta will not impose a total ban on flaring at this time, calling it ”a critical health and safety practice.” |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10146078/cop28-canada-methane-plan/ | globalnews.ca/news/10146078/co…

#cdnpoli #abpoli #smith #Guilbeault #COP28 #methane #emissions #politics #audits