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The sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs will be banned in Canada by 2012.

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn made the announcement earlier today, stating that the move would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than six million tonnes a year and save homeowners about $60 annually in electricity costs.

The news was also welcomed by Canada's largest light bulb retailer - Home Depot. The home renovation giant is boasting a 350% increase in sales of compact fluorescents since 2004, and they are working with Phillips Lighting to launch a national recycling program for the high efficiency bulbs by 2008.

Recognizing Canadians need a convenient and simple way to recycle CFLs properly, The Home Depot Canada in partnership with Phillips Lighting announced today it will test an in-store CFL recycling program this summer, with the expectation of making the program available nationally by 2008.

Great news.

Want to make real progress for the environment? Stop crapping on people who are doing something about it.

Over at the Daily Grist is an article titled Keep Your Eyes on the Size: The Impossibility of a green Wal-Mart. After recognizing Wal-Mart's outstanding commitments to greater efficiency - which include a 20% improvement in energy efficiency of all stores, the doubling of the fuel economy of their truck fleet, and the public reporting of their carbon footprint - the article's author, Stacy Mitchell, glibly dismisses the company's efforts because their carbon footprint does not take into account the SUVs that you, the consumer, drive to their stores.

Here's the key issue. Wal-Mart's carbon estimate omits a massive source of CO2 that is inherent to its operations and amounts to more than all of its other greenhouse-gas emissions combined: the CO2 produced by customers driving to its stores.

Let me be perfectly clear. I am not pro "big box" stores. I avoid all of them whenever possible, and I universally boycott Wal-Mart in particular for precisely the reasons Ms. Mitchell points out. However, credit where credit is due. Wal-Mart is making a more substantial commitment to green improvements than virtually any other major corporation, or government for that matter.

The real distraction taking place is the one occurring in the environmental community itself. While green leaders and publications like Grist continue to hunt their demons and dream of lofty ideals, they utterly fail to grasp the fact that long-term change towards sustainability and environmental responsibility is going to occur step-by-step, not by waving a magic wand and wishing for a perfect world.

Big box stores, oil companies and other destructive industries are with us and won't be disappearing anytime over the next several decades. However, with each year that passes they can be transformed, or slowly eliminated, through voluntary actions like Wal-Mart's and through strong government leadership that provides genuinely green rules and incentives. Wal-Mart's commitment to a 20% improvement in energy efficiency is something to be embraced. With that strong beginning taking place, it is now for governments to step in and get the ball rolling faster.

Want to stop Wal-Mart from transporting goods to heartland America from the far corners of the world? Double fuel taxes, cut taxes for local businesses and products, and levy taxes on imported goods. Want to stop the damage caused by consumers commuting to Wal-Mart? Double the fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, invest in urban planning and public transportation, and raise taxes at the gas pump so people won't burn fuel commuting to big box stores built on asphalt covered farmland. People will no longer go to Wal-Mart for 'cheap' products, because it will no longer be cheap to do so.

The responsibility for those changes is the province of government. To change government inaction we, the voters, need to start speaking up to this guy, and this guy, and insist that they stop denying global warming. We need to start talking to our neighbors who elected them in the first place and show them a better alternative, and for the 45% of you who don't bother going to the polls, you need to take a break from voting for the next American Idol and start making your voice heard in favour of the people who will make these changes.

Until that happens, Wal-Mart is making some of the world's biggest improvements towards greener operations. If you're criticizing that, then try planting some trees instead of barking up the wrong one. You'll be doing the environmental movement way more good.

The clean energy industry, whose combined revenue jumped 39% last year, is calling on governments to implement three simple steps to ensure the greater use of responsible energy and that the US economy remains strong in the face of the coming low carbon economy. The recommendations are:

• A market-based national policy that will achieve a 60% to 90% long-term decrease of greenhouse gas emissions.

• A realignment of national incentives to stimulate new clean technologies.

• A clarification of company disclosure requirements from the SEC.

There call not only represents responsible policy, but also shows the untapped areas of economic growth available through addressing climate change. Oil companies in both the United States and Canada continue to receive billions of dollars in subsidies to help fuel their bottom line. If the clean energy industry is growing by almost 40% per year without a similar infusion of tax dollars, then there is more than an ethical reason for government to invest in reduced greenhouse gases and clearer skies - it's also business case no-brainer.

Link via DeSmogBlog

Proving that politicians are concerned with self interest and not principles, the Bush Administration is opposing a proposed coal mine on the Canadian side of the BC - Montana border, citing potential downstream environmental impacts in the US.

Federal officials chose not to address the inherent hypocrisy of shouting down a coal mine affecting Montana's environment, while endorsing mountain top removal mining that is destroying entire valleys in the Appalachian states.

For those not familiar with the process, mountain top removal is essentially sawing the top off a mountain and dumping the refuse into neighbouring valleys in order to cheaply access coal seems lying underneath - for the apparent purpose of boosting mercury levels in water and and destroying global climate.

The main difference between the case in BC and mountain top removal in the US being that the latter is far more destructive, and more importantly, that the coal companies working in the Appalachians had the had the good sense to contribute to Bush's campaign, whereas the one in BC did not.

Having said that, BC citizens will take whatever help they can get in ensuring environmentally responsible industry at home.

Overcoming opposition from France and several eastern bloc countries, the European Union has agreed to bold new deal on global warming that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% lower than 1990 levels by 2020 and to see the EU producing a fifth of its energy via renewable sources by the same date.

The tough work in now ahead. A major stumbling block was overcome when member countries conceded to France's demand that nuclear should remain an energy option. Now countries will need to determine what reduction targets each nation should be responsible for. Eastern nations are looking for less aggressive targets than their more economically advanced western neighbours.

However, the ground work is now in place for Europe. They will take their reduction targets with them to the G8 summit in early June where other industrialized countries and emerging economies, such as China, will be pressed to agree a 30% global cut to succeed the Kyoto protocol. Europe will follow suit with a 30% commitment if other key nations agree.

Senior members of the British government are saying that US President George Bush is ready to make a historic shift in his government's position on global warming. The announcement is expected during the President's upcoming State of the Union address where British officials anticipate the President to acknowledge the reality of global warming and move towards a cap on US greenhouse gas emissions.

Bush and Blair held private talks on climate change before Christmas, and there is a feeling that the US President will now agree a cap on emissions in the US, meaning that, for the first time, American industry and consumers would be expected to start conserving energy and curbing pollution.

This year's State of the Union address is scheduled for Tuesday, January 23rd.

In the wake the Russian trade dispute that cut off oil supplies to parts of Europe, the European Commission is calling for an unprecedented common energy policy.

"Europe must lead the world into a new, or maybe one should say post-industrial revolution - the development of a low-carbon economy."

Citing European vulnerability to foreign imports of gas as a major factor, the plan calls for binding targets for increased efficiency, the development of alternate fuels, and a the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Specific highlights include:

Establishing a true internal energy market

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020

Supplying 10% of vehicle fuel through biofuels &

Increasing energy efficiency

Making all new power stations carbon neutral in 13 years