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Welcome to the WE-CAN Climate News Roundup
Your Primary Source for CLIMATE NEWS
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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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Top Story
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Vancouver’s Growing Anti-AI Movement
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From The Tyee: Residents are protesting and calling for a moratorium on new AI data centres. And local politicians are listening. On stage at the Russian Hall in East Vancouver, an organizer of a six-week-old protest group addressed a crowd. “So many people are responding to this. They understand, across the political spectrum, that this is a threat to our very humanity.” Read more
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Action Now!
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📌 Please Wade In! The Tilbury LNG Phase 2 Expansion Project (By July 27)
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From Stand.earth: The Tilbury LNG Phase 2 Expansion project has met resistance since the beginning. It would lock in a million tonnes of GHGs a year for decades. It threatens important salmon habitat and adds polluting ship traffic. FortisBC is planning to add to customers’ energy bills to cover the cost of the project, while pushing communities toward more fossil fuel use. We need you to wade in! We have created a toolkit with suggested points. It may look complicated to engage, but not if you use our point-by-point guide. https://stnd.ly/TilburyToolkit. Here is the link to the comment period https://stnd.ly/HaveASay
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Climate Solutions
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Build Canada Better: Five Clean Megaprojects Worth Building a Nation Around
From Corporate Knights: Instead of propping up sunsetting industries, Canada needs a hard pivot to large-scale, transformative, distributed energy megaprojects. Read more
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Hydrogen Vs. Batteries: Which Is Winning the Race to Electrify Heavy Trucks?
From CBC: Hydrogen has long been touted as the solution to electrifying and decarbonizing heavy vehicles, such as long-haul trucks. But now, battery-electric trucks appear to be winning the race against their hydrogen counterparts. Here's why. Read more
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Sqwa Solar, with Slade Williams
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From WE-CAN: Slade Williams is a solar champion with the Sqwa First Nation, near Chilliwack. Watch the conversation here
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Climate Videos, Books, Podcasts, Courses, Art
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A Kind Economy Works for All
From Love, Laughter and Kindness: In this engaging interview, Author, Environmentalist, TV host Canadian, Guy Dauncey shares his insights on the economics of kindness, community wealth, and the transformative power of cooperation. Discover how a shift from selfishness to kindness can create a more sustainable and joyful world. Watch the interview here
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You Didn’t Understand the Pipeline Thing that’s Just Gone Down?
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Canadian satire outlet The Goose produces the best two-minute recap of the Mark Carney-Danielle Smith oil pipeline announcement. Watch it 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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Climate Image of the Week
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Climate Politics and Action
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Surging Gas Power Emissions and Policy Rollbacks are Erasing Canada’s Biggest Climate Win
From National Observer: Gas power emissions have been accelerating upward, doubling in the last decade. Now, surging gas power is poised to wipe out the other half of that progress. Burning more fossil fuels is the opposite direction from climate stability, which requires ramping the burning down to zero. Read more
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The West Coast Pipeline: How would YOU spend $43 billion?
From The Energy Mix: We’re launching an online discussion over the summer to hear what you think a “good investment” would be for $43.7 billion of taxpayer funds. We’re hoping to spark a conversation, even if no public consultation is happening. Can you think of better ways to invest $1,000 per person living in Canada? We’ll share what we hear from you over the next seven weeks. Share your ideas here.
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Canada is the Worst Public Financier of Fossil Fuels in the G20
From Environmental Defence: PM Carney promised repeatedly that he would not spend public dollars on a new pipeline. Yet last week, he betrayed Canadians by announcing his government would spend tens of billions of public funds for another oil pipeline. “If profitable oil companies are unwilling to gamble on risky new projects, Canadians should not be forced to do it either.” Canada’s public banks provided $18.2 billion per year for fossil fuels in 2022 to 2024, the highest in the G20 by far. That is 19 times more than Canada’s financing for renewable energy projects. Read more
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B.C. Lawyers Reject Climate Advisory Committee for Third Time
From The Energy Mix: The Law Society of British Columbia has voted down a resolution to form a climate advisory committee, marking the third such rejection in four years. The resolution failed 1,264 to 747, with 232 members abstaining. Only 11% of eligible members voted. “It’s a disappointing result, but I believe it really just further underlines how much work there is to be done to raise awareness on the B.C. bar about how climate impacts legal practice,” said University of British Columbia law student Max Wilkinson. Read more
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The Ripple Effects of Organizing Against Data Centers
From Resilience: “I think that there’s a sort of theory that AI data centers are inevitable and that this is the future, and that there’s nothing we can do to stop it, but I think that working with No Data Center Monterey Park has shown me that really we should be challenging the notion of AI hyperscale data centers being a part of our urban infrastructure.” Read more
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Oil as Achilles ‘Heel
From Bill McKibben: Lessons for leaders from the conflagration in Omsk. Ukraine has already hit all ten of Russia's largest refineries, some of them more than once. It’s no longer a single plant waiting for repairs—it's effectively all of them at once. World leaders should be moving quickly to clean energy because it’s the one scalable weapon in the war against climate change. The peace dividend from sun and wind could be very real. Read more
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Who's Pushing Canada's Pension Giants to Back LNG?
From National Observer: Canada’s colossal public pension funds and their C$2.7-trillion asset portfolio have historically avoided investment in their own country’s liquefied natural gas sector, preferring instead projects in the US, Europe and Asia. But a profound institutional shift is under way. Read more
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Including Fossil Investments in a Sustainable Finance Taxonomy?!?
From The Energy Mix: The advisory group mandated to set the criteria for green or transition investments has opened a one-month feedback period to get public and expert comment on how those categories should be designed, and opened a conversation about whether fossil fuel investments should have any place in the framework. Read more
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BC Chief Raises Concerns Over Port Expansion and Pipeline Plans
From National Observer: A First Nation chief is calling on governments to consult affected Nations after Roberts Bank, near the US-Canada border, became a focal point for port expansion and Alberta’s proposed oil route to the Pacific. Last week, the federal government committed up to $10 billion for upgrades at the Roberts Bank shipping terminal, south of Vancouver, saying the added ship capacity would enable $100 billion in new trade. Read more
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Pipeline-A-Palooza: Unpacking Canadian Energy Politics
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From The Narwhal: Politicians dropped three pipeline announcements this week. If they’re such an economic boon, why are taxpayers footing the bill? This is not economic for the industry, so this will be taxpayer-funded. It’s quite misleading to suggest we would need a new pipeline to diversify away from the U.S.. Spending billions of dollars for a pipeline we don’t think the industry can fill is not the way to do it. Read more
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Climate Science and Impacts
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Source: Christian Gunn, Unsplash
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‘Let’s Call it Earth Grief’: Naming Pain and Loss in the Age of Climate Crisis
From Resilience: There is a certain kind of sadness that comes with working in the climate space. I know I am not the first to notice. Some have called it “eco-anxiety”, “eco-stress” or even “pre-traumatic stress”. As a climate communicator myself, naming this sadness has always felt right, and yet somehow the terminology has always felt off. Now that I have been studying grief, I am finally able to put my finger on it. Read more
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Pacific Gray Whales Facing ‘Catastrophic’ Die-Off as Climate Crisis Hits Food Supply
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From The Guardian: Climate change is driving a gray whale “catastrophic mortality event” in the Pacific Ocean as melting sea ice depletes food sources and the animals starve, environmental groups warn. Meanwhile, ship strikes, oil spills, microplastic pollution, algal blooms and Russian harvesting are also probably contributing to the die-off that has nearly halved the whales’ estimated population. Read more
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Forestry and Nature
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BC Announces Plans for Three New Indigenous-Led Conservation Areas
From The Tyee: A grizzly bear haven, a long-contested watershed near Manning Park and a rare rainforest are the latest three areas proposed for Indigenous-led conservation in BC. Asked if the government is planning any more conservation announcements, Neill said, “I would love to say yes, but at this time I don’t know.” While Foy lauded the announcement, he said it “barely moves that needle” on protecting 30$ of B.C. in the next four years. Read more
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The Province-Wide New Forest Act Tour Has Come to an End.
From Jennifer Houghton: Twelve communities. Hundreds of kilometres. Some nights 40 people. Other nights more than 200. Forestry workers. Retired foresters. Scientists. Local government representatives. Community leaders. Farmers. Small business owners. Students. Every community was different, but one thing was remarkably consistent. People are looking for a solution. A real plan. Something practical and credible that addresses forests, water, wildlife, jobs, and communities together. People were looking for a constructive way to be part of the solution. Watch the New Forest Act presentation on YouTube 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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Tuesday, July 14, 3:45 pm Climate Adaptation: Preparing Vancouver’s Workforce for Coastal Reality
From Iron & Earth et al: The Pacific Northwest faces immediate climate risks: sea-level rise, extreme weather, infrastructure vulnerability. Our panel explores how we are responding to physical climate risks, what new roles and capabilities are emerging, and what workforce skills are needed to execute resilience strategies at scale. In person, Vancouver Central Library. Register here
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Saturday, July 18, 1-2:30 pm Policy & Penmanship: Write to Your Government Officials for Environmental Justice
From Shake Up The Establishment: The government released their draft strategy for addressing environmental racism and advancing environmental justice. Public consultation is open until August 10. We are hosting a fun letter-writing event at the Beaumont Studios in Vancouver to help get more public engagement. Register here
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Saturday, July 18, 1-5 pm Beyond Good Intentions: Indigenous Protocols in BC Visual Arts
From CARFAC BC: This event is for visual artists, curators, arts administrators, cultural workers, and arts organizations who want to think more deeply about respectful, relationship-based practice with Indigenous artists and communities. With Dr. George Littlechild, Daniel Elliott, Leona Flamand Gallant, Ecko Aleck, and Morrie Dawson.In person, Costin Hall, Lantzville. Details here
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Wednesday, July 22, 1-3 pm Building Momentum for Environmental Justice Virtual Event
From Shake Up The Establishment, Black Environmental Initiative, Pacific Association of First Nations Women, Sacred Earth Solar, and Women’s Healthy Environments Network: We are co-hosting this event to build momentum around Canada’s first-ever National Strategy to Advance Environmental Justice and Address Environmental Racism. We will bring together government officials and community groups working on environmental, labour, housing, social justice, and Indigenous sovereignty issues. Register here
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Thursday, July 23, 6 pm WE-CAN Climate Book Club
From WE-CAN: We will be discussing Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change, by David Camfield. To join the Book Club, click here
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Grants, Job Vacancies and More!
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Yes, Applications ARE Still Open! Are You Hosting a Climate Event Through a PICS-Network University? We Can Provide Support.
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From PICS: Our University Climate Knowledge Mobilization Events program supports climate change-related research dissemination, knowledge mobilization, and events hosted by PICS university (UBC, SFU, UNBC, UVic) groups, organizations, departments, or institutes. The program offers up to $2,500 for eligible events. We aim to support up to 35 events a year and will close when funding is fully subscribed. 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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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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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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