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Welcome to the WE-CAN Climate News Roundup
Your Primary Source for CLIMATE NEWS
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Issue #234 March 10, 2026
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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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Top Story
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70% of Canadians Want Canada to Be a Renewable Energy Superpower
From Re.Climate: Climate change remains a top concern, and Canadians expect action from leaders. 70% of the public would feel pride if Canada were to become a renewable energy superpower. Only 30% feel this way about becoming an oil and gas superpower. 56% of Albertans share this feeling, as do 60% of the public in Saskatchewan and 67% in Manitoba. Video from the webinar. Read more
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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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📌 Will You Help Put Comfortable, Affordable Homes Within Reach for More Canadians? (Please sign)
A House of Commons petition is calling on the government to make energy efficiency a nation-building priority. We're asking the federal government to set double the rate at which we improve energy productivity, and to end energy poverty. The benefits of efficiency are clear. Every dollar invested returns $4 to $7 in GDP. It can help two million Canadians escape energy poverty, and it keeps our government's promise to treat energy efficiency as the "first fuel." Sign here
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Call for a Provincial Law to Protect Biodiversity in B.C. (Please Write)
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📌 From Sierra Club of BC: Despite having over 1,900 species and ecosystems on the brink, B.C. remains without a provincial law to meaningfully protect endangered species or their habitats. Let’s change that. Join the thousands of people calling for a provincial law co-developed with Indigenous Nations that prioritizes biodiversity and ecosystem health. Read more
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WE-CAN Friends and Allies
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WE-CAN is Seeking New Board Members - Applications due by March 15, 2026! (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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📌 Help Us Break the Climate Silence
From WE-CAN and BC Climate Emergency Campaign: Next week is the Legislative break (March 16th – 27th). Have you asked for time with your MLA If you live in their riding, can you step up? The sign-up sheet is here, and you can request a copy of the 2025 Climate Action Progress Report here. Our advice on how to send that email, and how to meet your MLA, is here.
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Breaking Through the Climate Silence: June 1 - 7
From Seniors for Climate: Can everyone please “get loud” about climate during Canadian Environmental Week, June 1 to 7? Consider organizing an event, or joining one of Seniors For Climate's. We plan to have 93 locations across Canada up and running with the theme "Breaking Through the Climate Silence". Contact us at contactinfo@SeniorsForClimate.org
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WE-CAN Climate Book Club
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Our members have summarized the key data from Bill Kibben’s book Here Comes the Sun. Read more
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Green Businesses for a Safe Climate
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From WE-CAN: Can you help us compile a listing of 100 green businesses in BC? We need volunteers who will spend half an hour searching and entering green businesses into our list, using publicly available information. Contact guy@westcoastclimateaction.ca if you are able to help.
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From Refugee to Climate Advocate Empowering Other Newcomers
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From Patricia Lane, National Observer: Milad Rajabi empowers refugees to protect our climate. This 25-year-old former refugee from Afghanistan founded and runs Refugee Talk to enhance the resettlement process for newcomers. Now a permanent Canadian resident, he believes essential ingredients for building a new life here include learning some of our Indigenous heritage and helping make the impacts of climate change on both their homeland and their new country more transparent. Read more
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Climate Solutions
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Canada’s EV Battery Plan is Now Open
From Clean Energy Canada: The NextStar Energy battery plant in Windsor Ontario has opened. The 4.23 million-square-foot factory employs 1,300 skilled workers, many with engineering backgrounds; up to 2,500 directly at full capacity. Workers have been quietly churning out batteries since November, producing a million battery cells—enough to power 300 Tesla Model 3s. At full capacity, the plant will produce enough battery modules for nearly half a million EVs a year. Read more
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How to Reduce BC’s Peak Electricity Demand By Up to 10%
From Clean Energy Canada: Unlocking the potential of distributed energy resources like EVs, heat pumps and smart thermostats could reduce B.C.’s peak electricity demand by up to 10%, with reductions in every scenario studied. Most potential reductions come from households, particularly EV load management and residential space and water heating. Read more
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Could Solar Panels Help Strengthen Global Food Security?
From Positive News: A Canadian study suggests solar farms could increase global crop yields by hundreds of billions of pounds, thanks to the protective microclimate created beneath their panels. Modelling suggests passive agri-cultural shading from unpowered panels could lift crop yields to the tune of $580bn. Read more
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In Northeast B.C., Fresh Food is Scarce. This First Nation Hopes Geothermal Energy Could Change that
From The Narwhal: A first-of-its-kind project by West Moberly First Nations looks deep underground for clean energy solutions. The First Nation believes a greenhouse could boost food security and food sovereignty, and plans to tap a geothermal reservoir — which holds scalding hot water buried deep underground — to heat it. Their geothermal project could be the first of its kind in the province, which boasts major geothermal opportunities but has no commercial-scale projects in operation. Read more
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This City Turned Its Rooftops into a Climate Shield
From Reasons to be Cheerful: As cities struggle with heat, Zürich offers a masterclass in using vegetation to cool streets, manage stormwater and restore biodiversity. On hot summer days, the center of Zürich, warms like a bowl, with street surfaces radiating heat well into the night. Yet a patchwork of green roofs softens the cityscape. Read more
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A Giant Wave of Balcony Solar Could be Coming to the United States
From Corporate Knights: Lawmakers in 27 states and Washington, D.C. have announced legislation to enable adoption of plug-in solar systems. Lauren Phillips’s balcony just became a power plant. A few weeks ago, the attorney set up the first plug-and-play solar panel in the Bronx. The 220-watt installation, secured to the balcony railing with zip ties, has been a boon for the renter and mother of two. Read more
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Electric Buses Have Passed a Brutal Cold-Weather Test
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From Reasons to be Cheerful: Overhead chargers on key bus routes in Madison, Wisconsin are enabling the zero-emissions vehicles to run despite freezing conditions. Just a few years ago, electric buses routinely faltered in cold conditions. Now, with better batteries and strategically placed chargers, Madison is testing whether those doubts still hold. Madison is among more than 100 U.S. cities that have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Electric buses are key to that goal. Read more
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Forestry and Nature
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Victory! UK Drax Will Stop Burning Old Growth Forests From British Columbia
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From Stand.earth: Drax will stop burning trees from British Columbia entirely within the next year. For years, we have organized, researched, rallied, and spoken out: burning forests is not a climate solution. Our research revealed that old growth forests were in Drax’s supply chain, debunking its “green” claims yet again. Together, we helped make trees in B.C. “too controversial” to burn, and that is thanks to you. Drax will not stop burning biomass — it’s shifting its supply chain. Here in B.C., trees will still be cut and turned into pellets, but many will be destined for Japan instead. Read more
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Climate Science and Impacts
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Humanity Heating Planet Faster than Ever Before, Study Finds
From The Guardian: Researchers identify a sharp rise of about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño. “How quickly the Earth continues to warm ultimately depends on how rapidly we reduce global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels to zero,” said Rahmstorf. Read more
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Sea Level Rise Will Cause ‘Catastrophic Inland Migration’, Scientists Warn
From The Guardian: Rising oceans will force millions away from coasts even if global temperature rise remains below 1.5 °C, analysis finds. Read more
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Global Sea Levels Have Been Underestimated Due to Poor Modelling, Research Suggests
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From The Guardian: Analysis shows average levels are 30cm higher than thought, and up to 150cm in south-east Asia and Indo-Pacific. Read more
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Climate Image of the Week
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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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Wednesday, March 11, 2-3 pm The Changing Climate of Work: Political, Economic and Social Challenges for a Green Transition.
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From CASC: Seth Klein, John Calvert and Megan Gordon will consider what it will take to align climate goals with decent work, strong communities, and space for inclusion. Register here
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Thursday, March 12, 6:30-9 pm Climate Future Film Festival
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From Nanaimo Climate Action Hub: Films from four continents give expression to what we're feeling—hope and cynicism, climate denial and climate grief, rage and heartbreak, resilience and resolve. Author Bill McKibben anchors the Festival. VIU, Building 356, Room 109. Refreshments BYOB. Starts 6:30 sharp! Register here
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Sunday, March 15, 12-3 pm Transit Riders Spring Celebration, Victoria
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From Victoria Transit Riders Union: Meet at Oaklands Community Centre, 2827 Belmont Ave, Victoria. Details here
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Thursday, March 19, 7 pm Sacred Earth Deep Dive
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From First Things First Okanagan: Join us to hear the history of the Indigenous women-led organization which assists remote Indigenous communities to install solar to cut fossil fuel use and emissions. Sacred Earth is an Indigenous and woman-led organization: “Our mission is to advance a ‘Just Transition’ which is a move towards climate solutions prioritizing communities that are most impacted by extractivism and by the effects of climate change.” Register here
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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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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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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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Climate Politics and Action
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This Climate Ad Says More than a Thousand Speeches
Sometimes the most powerful truth doesn’t come from a politician—it comes from a fossil. This UNDP campaign turned extinction into a spokesperson, exposing the absurdity of our climate subsidies. Sharp, satirical, and impossible to ignore. Watch it here
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'The New Tobacco': The Cities Banning Fossil Fuel Adverts
From BBC: Cities across the world are clearing their billboards of flight ads, SUVs, cruise ships and petrol cars in an attempt to cut emissions. When I visited in late 2024, adverts in the Hague, Holland, were promoting trips to sunny beaches in the Dutch Caribbean. But when I returned seven months later there were no posters for petrol or diesel cars, or for cruises or flights to far-flung holiday destinations. Read more
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China Makes Measurable Progress in the Fight Against Global Warming
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From Democracy at Work: China’s planet-warming emissions have continued to flatline — and in some sectors, decline — as cleaner forms of energy outpace coal and gas generation. If current trends hold, China’s emissions from energy production could peak within the next two years. That would represent a major shift in global fossil fuel use and a critical milestone in the effort to slow warming. Read more
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Grants, Job Vacancies and More!
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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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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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