'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Members of the Group of Seven major economies pledged Tuesday to create a new "climate club" for nations that want to take more ambitious action to tackle global warming, putting them on a possible collision course with China.
The idea, championed by G7 summit host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, will see countries that join the club agree on tougher measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Countries that are part of the club will try to ensure their national measures are transparent and comparable, avoiding the need for members to impose climate-related tariffs on each others' imports. The European Union in particular has touted such tariffs as a way to prevent companies which reduce emissions from being undercut by foreign rivals that don't have to abide by strict environmental rules.
Speaking at the end of the three-day summit, Scholz said the aim was to "ensure that protecting the climate is a competitive advantage, not a disadvantage."
The G7 say that the new club will be "will be inclusive in nature and open" to countries that are committed to fully implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord, but the idea is likely to find little favour particularly with China, the world's biggest emitter. Beijing has made clear that it strongly opposes climate-related tariffs and has tried to rally support against the idea from other emerging and developing countries.
Scholz said details of the planned climate club would be finalized this year.
The G7 also made clear their continued support for efforts to cap global warming at 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) this century compared to preindustrial times, outlining numerous measures they will take to curb their own emissions and help poorer nations do the same.
Environmental campaigners expressed relief that existing pledges to phase out coal use and boost the uptake of electric cars hadn't been rolled back, though the G7 did soften their commitments on ending public support for fossil fuel investments.
In their final statement following three days of talks in Elmau, the G7 leaders said that because of the exceptional circumstances arising from the war in Ukraine, "publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response."
Environmental campaigners, scientists and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have urged rich, developed nations to end all public finance for fossil fuel projects, warning that these could lock in increased carbon emissions or become obsolete in just a few years.
Scholz, whose country has scrambled to find replacements for Russian natural gas supplies cut due to the war in Ukraine, defended the decision.
"Gas will be needed temporarily and that is why there may be investments that make sense, in this transition phase, and that therefore may need to be supported," he told reporters after the summit.
One of the arguments made by German officials in favour of supporting new natural gas development projects is that this could prevent them having to resort to burning more polluting coal to meet their energy needs.
But experts said it is unclear whether investments in natural gas projects -- such as one that Germany is considering supporting in Senegal -- even make financial sense when countries have committed not to release any additional emissions into the atmosphere by mid-century.
"The simple truth is gas, oil and coal have got much more expensive while clean alternatives like wind and solar look an even better, and far cheaper bet," said Gareth Redmond-King of the environmental think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. "It will be critical not to risk fossil fuel stranded assets that, by the time they come online, find the world has moved on towards net zero."
____
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Canucks as Vancouver kicks off a second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.