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Welcome to the WE-CAN Climate News Roundup
Your Primary Source for CLIMATE NEWS
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Issue #236 March 24, 2026
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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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Top Story
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David Suzuki: We Thank You!
From WE-CAN: Dear David, Congratulations on the big milestone! For so many years, you have warned of the perils of the climate crisis and the assault on biodiversity. You have worked so hard, combining science with your heart. You have persisted. You have never given up. And yes, you feel that it has not been enough. This is something all climate activists feel. But yes, we persist! And that is the biggest gift you have given us: the gift of persistence. We keep on going. We embrace you and thank you. We wish you at least another ten years of life before you leave us. If David Attenborough can do it - 100 on May 26th - so can you! We invite our readers to show their appreciation, support and celebrate you here
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Join the Movement. Fuel the Change. The climate crisis won’t wait — and neither can we. At the West Coast Climate Action Network, we connect with and support nearly 300 climate organizations across BC. Together, we amplify impact, share resources, and drive urgent change.
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But we can’t do it without you!
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By becoming a monthly donor, you provide steady and reliable support that sustains the climate movement throughout the year. Your contributions fund vital coordination, advocacy, events, and tools — empowering people and organizations across BC to fight for a livable future. Monthly giving also makes it easier for you to stay connected to the cause, while helping us plan and grow with confidence
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Whether it’s $5 or $50 a month, your donation directly strengthens climate action in BC — and every dollar adds up.
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Be the spark. Join our growing community of monthly donors today.
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Thank you for standing with us in this decisive decade.
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Action Now!
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📌 Want to Fight Back Against Subsidies for LNG this Spring? No Handouts for American Billionaires!
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From Dogwood: We hope you will join our digital action squad on Whatsapp. This spring, the federal government will decide whether to approve massive taxpayer handouts to new American-backed LNG projects. Folks across the country are speaking up together as part of a national mobilization to tell the feds: No handouts for American billionaires! Instead of LNG, invest in nation-building projects that will boost our economy, make us more resilient and create a cleaner, safer future. Get involved here
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📌 The Next Provincial BC Budget (By Friday April 10)
From BC Government: British Columbians wishing to present to the Committee in-person or virtually are asked to complete a presentation request form by Friday, April 10 at 2pm. The Parliamentary Committees Office will follow up with interested participants in May. The Committee will be holding public hearings in June and will be a mix of virtual meetings and in-person meetings in Burnaby, Castlegar, Cranbrook, Dawson Creek, Kamloops, Kelowna, Mission, Nanaimo, Prince George, Smithers, Vancouver and Victoria. Participate here
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📌 Insist on Climate in the Next Provincial BC Budget (By Friday April 10)
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From My Sea to Sky: For the BC government to prioritize climate action, we need them to allocate funding in the budget. Please consider applying to present or send a written submission asking the Committee to recommend that BC allocate 2% of GDP (~$8.9 billion) to support climate action and strengthen CleanBC. We identified several sources of funding for climate solutions on page 8 of the 2025 progress report. Let’s make some noise! Participate here
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WE-CAN Friends and Allies
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Tuesday, March 31, 4 pm LNG: Not In Our National Interest Campaign Launch
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From Stand.earth and others: “LNG: Not in Our National Interest” is a new campaign to pressure PM Carney and his ministers to stop the government from giving billions more of our taxpayer money to dirty energy megaprojects that only benefit foreign billionaires. We want the government to fund the clean, renewable economy instead. Register here
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Friday, March 27, 12-1 pm Lunch ‘ Learn: First Nations Call for Safe, Affordable Transportation
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From WE-CAN: Our guests Kristin Denby and Charlotte Bull from the BC Assembly of First Nations will share important messages from their Low Carbon Transportation Project, which is working to accelerate opportunities for BC’s First Nations to access safe, affordable, and reliable low-carbon and active transportation, including in rural and remote communities. Register here
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Friday, March 27, 7 pm ‘Laxwesa Wa – Strength of the River’ Movie Night
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From WE-CAN: Indigenous people have always respected the resources of their rivers and oceans. But within their own lifetime, they have watched governments “manage” the fishery into a state of crisis. Barb Cranmer of the ’Namgis First Nation explores the rich fishing traditions of the Sto:lo, Heiltsuk and ‘Namgis peoples. With years’ of experience fishing Johnstone Strait with her father, she presents rarely heard stories of traditional fishing practices, and Indigenous peoples’ efforts to build a sustainable fishery for the future. Register here
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BC Climate Politics
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At 90, David Suzuki Says He Has Done Everything He Could to Protect the Earth, But Fears He Has Fallen Short
From CBC: Legal, economic, and political frameworks, he argues, "no longer reside in a web of relationships," leaving nature entirely out of the equation. Indigenous cultures, by contrast, are grounded in reciprocity. Nature provides abundance, and in return, humans have a responsibility to act in ways that preserve and honour that generosity. Read more
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David Suzuki is 90. Environmentalists May Have Lost, Big Time, But He Still Has Hope
From Times Colonist: David Suzuki admits defeat — at least in some respects. The geneticist turned environmentalist, reflected on his legacy as he prepared to release his latest book, Lessons from a Lifetime. "The important legacy that I want to tell my grandchildren is, look, I tried. I love you. I did the best I could for you. And I tried.” Read more
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Public Transit Expansion Plans Shelved Across BC
From The Tyee: Dozens of BC communities have shelved plans to expand their bus services, with officials at BC Transit blaming a lack of funding in the recent provincial budget. BC Transit had already been unable to keep up with local governments’ requests for improved transit projects in recent years, providing money for only about one-third of requested bus expansions. Now, all expansions for 2027 are on hold. Read more
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BC Has Revealed How It Hopes To Fast-track Some Mines
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From The Tyee: B.C. has provided a first glimpse into its planned fast-tracked environmental assessment process for major projects, including mines. The changes are a major part of the province’s Infrastructure Projects Act (Bill 15), which gives the government new powers to exempt selected projects from existing rules. The law requires enabling regulations, and last week the government released a discussion paper outlining what those might include. Critics fear the changes would limit public and Indigenous input and increase environmental risks. Read more
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Climate Solutions
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How Pakistan’s People-Led Solar Boom is Easing Impact of Middle East Energy Crisis
From The Guardian: Nationwide, the share of electricity generated by solar jumped fivefold between December 2021 and December 2025. The figure reached about one-fifth of the country’s grid-supplied electricity in 2024. By February 2026, Pakistan’s solar surge had helped to avoid about $12bn in oil and gas imports. Read more
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Building For Tomorrow - Resources For Climate-Ready Housing and Infrastructure
Launched in 2024, Climate Insight was commissioned by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to support public infrastructure practitioners in their decision-making processes by bringing the most recent and relevant climate-related information together in one place. https://climateinsight.ca
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BYD Just Killed the EV Argument with a Battery That Competes with Gas Engines
From Fast Company: The Chinese carmaker’s new batteries feature a 5-minute charge and 621-mile range, plus a 620,000-mile lifespan and lower prices. Read more
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London, San Francisco and Beijing Achieve ‘Remarkable Reductions’ in Air Pollution
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From The Guardian: Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%. Beijing and Warsaw topped the ranking for cleaning up fine particulate pollution, reducing levels by more than 45%, while Amsterdam and Rotterdam saw the greatest improvement in nitrogen dioxide, with cuts of more than 40%. San Francisco was the only US city that cut levels of both pollutants by more than 20%. Read more
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Climate Politics and Action
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‘Laughable, Ridiculous’: Federal Environment Committee Engaging in ‘Junior High Behaviour’, Donner and Abreu Say
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From The Energy Mix: Two former advisers on Ottawa’s climate policies say recent antics by parliamentarians at the House of Commons environment committee demonstrate why they resigned from Canada’s independent net-zero advisory body last year. Read more
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Climate Science and Impacts
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UK Government Report on Ecosystem Collapse
From The Guardian: It took an FOI request to bring the national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication. The assessment – believed to have been compiled by the joint intelligence committee on which the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ sit - tells us that “ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions. Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse.” Read more
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Buckle Up — El Niño Is Brewing
From National Observer: “Not now, El Niño,” pleads the astrophysicist-turned climate scientist, Kate Marvel. On top of the fossil fuel crisis and conflicts derailing the world, it appears that Mother Nature is about to provide the umpteenth lesson that we mess with the grand cycles of the Earth to our peril. James Hansen and argue that a doubling of CO2 would cause at least 4 C of warming. They claim the IPCC has been underplaying the threat in its reports to the world’s governments. If they’re right, we’ll break through 2 C in the 2030s. Read more
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Five Million Tonnes of CO2 in Just 14 Days of US War on Iran
From The Guardian: War in the Middle East is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined. “Every refinery fire and tanker strike is a reminder that fossil‑fuelled geopolitics is incompatible with a livable planet. This war shows, yet again, that the fastest way to supercharge the climate crisis is to let fossil fuel interests dictate foreign policy.” Read more
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Earth Being ‘Pushed Beyond its Limits’ As Energy Imbalance Reaches Record High
From The Guardian: 2015 to 2025 were the hottest 11 years ever measured, but a still bleaker message was that the rising temperature on the surface was only 1% of the faster-accumulating heat in the wider Earth system. More than 90% of that excess is absorbed by the oceans, which experienced the highest heat content in history last year. “The global climate is in a state of emergency. Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” said the UN secretary-general, António Guterres Read more
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Revealed: The World’s Worst Mega-Leaks of Methane Driving Global Heating
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From The Guardian: The mega-leaks occur across the world, but the top 25 list, produced by the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, is dominated by facilities in Turkmenistan. The scale of methane leaks in the secretive and authoritarian state has previously been described as “mind-boggling”. Read more
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Forestry and Nature
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The New Forest Act: A Legislative Blueprint for BC Forestry Reform
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From Jennifer Houghton: We’re not just pointing out problems. We’ve written the solution. The New Forest Act is a ready-to-go legislative blueprint. It was shaped with input from ecologists, forestry experts, and affected communities. It puts ecosystem integrity first, returns decision‑making to communities and Indigenous Peoples, and rebuilds stable, diversified local economies. If implemented, the New Forest Act would change how every public forest in BC is managed—protecting water, restoring damaged ecosystems, and keeping forestry jobs rooted in rural communities. It’s a practical plan for future generations, not just the next election cycle. Read more
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The New Forest Act Framework - Protect, Restore, Harvest - Video
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From New Forest Act: We walk through a mapping analysis that shows how the New Forest Act framework could be applied in a real watershed. We use the Kettle River watershed as a case study because it has known constraints: flood history, cumulative impacts, steep terrain, high road density, and extensive logging. It’s also a watershed we’ve studied closely, including a 2021 field report based on ground-truthing more than twenty sites. Watch here
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You Can Take Action! Events, Protests and Rallies
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*PLEASE NOTE* If your climate organization is a WE-CAN member, click “Post your Event” under ‘Calendar’, and it will be added following approval.
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The calendar is a great networking tool, helping you connect and share events with the broader climate movement. Check it out and start posting your events today!
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Friday, March 27, 1 - 2:30 pm Elder Leadership and Sustainability
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From SPEC: Join us to learn from Patricia Lane, whose four decades of work spans faith, justice, climate action, trade unions, co-founding Leadnow.ca and Greater Victoria Acting Together. Patricia will share lessons from her mentorship of young climate leaders, workshops on climate grief and appreciative inquiry, and communications advice to environmental groups and governments. Register here
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Tuesday, March 31, 10 am Building a Wellbeing Economy: From Grassroots to Global Change
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From Ecojustice: Join us to explore how we can reshape our economic system to prioritize human and ecological wellbeing, with three experts in the wellbeing economy movement. We’re pushing for bold, systemic reforms that recognize the limits of our ecosystems and put social and environmental justice at the centre. Register here
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Wednesday, April 8, 3:30 pm Here Comes the Sun: Driving a Renewable Energy Revolution
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From Seniors for Climate: We are proud to host a timely discussion with climate author and activist Bill McKibben, who will answer important questions, and speak about his book, Here Comes the Sun, exploring why renewable energy is poised to transform the world. Q&A, update on our 2026 campaign, 'Break Through the Climate Silence.' Register here
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Wednesday, April 15, 2-3 pm The Changing Climate of Work: Green Jobs, Skills, and Sector Transitions
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From CASC: Scott Lundy, Jim Stanford and Ben Simoni will discuss emerging green jobs, evolving skill demands, and the roles of unions, employers, and educational institutions in supporting workers through rapid sector transitions. Register here
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Wednesday, April 15, 6-9 pm Neighbourhoods in the 21st Century (In Vancouver)
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From GTEC: Join us for an evening with Miranda Massie, Founding Director of the New York Climate Museum. Our fundraising dinner brings together community members and climate supporters to champion our Neighbourhood in the 21st Century exhibit—a dynamic arts and culture initiative designed to spark creativity, hope, and climate adaptation in local communities. Museum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut St. Read more
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Thursday, April 16, 5 pm Forests Frayed to Forests Renewed: The Case for Rezoning BC’s Public Lands
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From BC Policy Solutions: Ben Parfitt has covered forestry since the 1980s as a journalist and with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He is currently a reporter with The Tyee, where he covers the forestry and oil and gas impacts on critical natural resources. Limited capacity. Will not be recorded. $20. At UVic. Register here
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Wednesday, April 22, 7-8 pm Climate Resilience for People with Intellectual + Developmental Disabilities
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From Down Syndrome Resource Syndrome: Climate change poses escalating physical, social, and financial risks, especially for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities like Down syndrome. This Earth Day, join us as we explore how we can improve our climate resilience, with our Sustainability Ambassador Nika Zondag, and a presentation by Dr. Sébastien Jodoin, who is researching the role of disability rights in addressing complex environmental and health issues and challenges. Read more
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Grants, Job Vacancies and More!
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WE-CAN Is Seeking New Board Members - Apply Now!
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From WE-CAN: Do you want to join our Board? There are several positions up for election, including Treasurer. We meet twice a month, and most Board members are active on one or more of our working teams. Our purpose is to serve, support, amplify and promote the work of our 270+ member organizations, and to take whatever other actions we feel are needed to help end the global climate emergency. We strive to work with a culture of kindness, respect, and inclusivity. Read more
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Big Opportunity: Adaptive and Resilient Communities (Apply by March 25)
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From Tamarack Institute: Our 2026 Adaptive and Resilient Communities Cohort is designed to advance local climate adaptation and resilience projects. It will bring together 10 organizations for an 8-month journey of applied learning and action, from April to November. Read more
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Job Vacancies: Youth Climate Corps Community Climate Action Mobilizers
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From BC Youth Climate Corps: We are hiring Community Climate Action Mobilizers in Squamish, Kelowna, Courtenay, and Vernon. You’ll get paid to turn climate values into meaningful action, collaborate with an inspiring cohort, support hands-on projects with local community partners, build practical, transferable skills, and grow your confidence as a climate leader. Read more
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Climate Image of the Week
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Environment Funders
Their list of members is here - a useful source of thinking when it comes to fundraising
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WE-CAN’s Fundraising Toolkit for Climate Action Groups is here
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From all of us in the West Coast Climate Action Network
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We honour the title and rights of the Indigenous peoples on whose ancestral lands we live and work.
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