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European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans vows the EU will step up its emissions cuts at UN climate talks in Egypt, dismissing suggestions the bloc is backtracking in the face of the Ukraine conflict

The EU vowed to step up its emissions cuts at UN climate talks on Tuesday as developing nations admonished rich polluters for falling short on efforts to help them cope with global warming.

The COP27 conference in Egypt has been dominated by calls for wealthy nations to fulfil pledges to fund the green transitions of poorer countries least responsible for global emissions, build their resilience and compensate them for climate-linked losses.

The meeting comes as global emissions are slated to reach an all-time high this year, making the aspirational goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels ever more elusive.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told delegates that the European Union will update its climate commitment as it will be able to exceed its original plan to cut emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

The 27-nation bloc will now be able to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 57 percent from 1990 levels, he said.

“The European Union is here to move forwards, not backwards,” Timmermans told COP27 delegates.

The invasion of Ukraine by fossil fuel exporter Russia has cast a shadow over the talks in Egypt, with activists accusing Europeans of seeking to tap Africa for natural gas following Russian supply cuts.

But Timmermans denied that the 27-nation bloc was in a “dash for gas” in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

“So don’t let anybody tell you here or outside that the EU is backtracking,” he said.

Campaigners said the EU announcement did not go far enough.

“This small increase announced today at COP27 doesn’t do justice to the calls from the most vulnerable countries at the front lines,” said Chiara Martinelli, of Climate Action Network Europe.

“If the EU, with a heavy history of emitting greenhouse gases, doesn’t lead on mitigating climate change, who will?” 

– North vs South –

COP27 has exposed deep divisions between wealthy polluters and nations vulnerable to the most ferocious climate impacts.

“The lack of leadership and ambition on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is worrisome,” said Senegalese Environment Minister Alioune Nodoye, speaking on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group.

Belize Climate Change Minister Orlando Habet called for more action from the G20 group of the world’s wealthiest nations, which are responsible for 80 percent of global emissions and are meeting at summit in Indonesia. 

“In how many COPs have we been arguing for urgent climate action? And how many more do we need, how many lives do we need to sacrifice,” Habet said.

UN climate talks often go into overtime and this year’s meeting, due to end on Friday, could be no different.

The first draft of the final declaration only has bullet points so far, with a line on the “urgency of action to keep 1.5C in reach”.

Wealthy and developing nations are sharply divided over money at COP27.

Developing countries says this year’s floods in Pakistan, which have cost the country up to $40 billion, have highlighted the pressing need to create a “loss and damage” compensation fund.

In a small breakthrough, the United States and European Union agreed to have the issue discussed at COP27.

But Western governments favour using existing financial channels instead of building a new mechanism.

The draft declaration mentions the “need for funding arrangements to address” loss and damage — language used by the United States and Europeans since COP27 started on November 6. 

“Loss and damage must remain firmly on the table as we continue to witness increasing appearances of severity of climate change impacts everywhere,” Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa told delegates.

“The financial burden for loss and damage falls almost entirely on affected countries and not those most responsible for climate change.”

Indonesia has one of the largest coal reserves in the world

Rich nations pledged Tuesday to raise at least $20 billion to help wean Indonesia off coal and reach carbon neutrality by 2050, a decade earlier than planned, the White House said.

The United States, Japan, Canada and six European countries signed the accord with Jakarta on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali to ensure a “just power sector transition” away from Indonesia’s coal-dependent economy, they said in a statement released by the White House.

Under the deal, Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, pledges to be carbon-neutral by 2050, — 10 years earlier than previously planned — and to almost double its renewable energy generation by 2030.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo hailed the deal, which follows a similar agreement for South Africa last year, as a model that could be replicated in other countries to meet the world’s climate goals.

“Indonesia is committed to using our energy transition to achieve a green economy and drive sustainable development,” he said, pledging the deal would help “accelerate this transition”.

Sponsors of the agreement said Jakarta had committed to an ambitious shift to clean energy in return for $10 billion in public sector finance and $10 billion in private funding over three to five years.

The financing included “grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees and private investments” for the country, which has one of the largest coal reserves in the world.

US President Joe Biden said the deal showed “countries can dramatically cut emissions and increase renewable energy while… creating quality jobs and protecting livelihoods and communities.”

– ‘Work in progress’ –

Indonesia has at times questioned climate deals, including a 2021 agreement to end deforestation by 2030 it signed, warning it could hinder the country’s economic development.

But despite the new incentives, experts cautioned that a lot of work remained for Indonesia to meet the demands of the partnership.

“It’s a work in progress. But Indonesia has gotten to enough comfort level with the scale of finance that they want to go ahead with it. There will be a lot of follow up work,” said Friederike Roder, senior director for EU and G20 at NGO Global Citizen.

But he warned: “There is concern that the finance is not adequate for the total transformation that is needed”.

Indonesian officials welcomed the pact despite the worries.

The deal shows “we can create a more sustainable world for our grandchildren, our citizens, and the future generation,” Indonesia’s coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told a press conference.

The donor pledge announced on Tuesday was part of a slew of projects announced under an infrastructure partnership — aimed as a counter-balance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative — to provide support to developing nations.

They ranged from funding for digital projects in the Pacific to investment in the sustainable mining of nickel and cobalt in Brazil and powering solar projects in Honduras.

Indonesia has one of the largest coal reserves in the world

Rich nations pledged Tuesday to raise at least $20 billion to help wean Indonesia off coal and reach carbon neutrality by 2050, a decade earlier than planned, the White House said.

The United States, Japan, Canada and six European countries signed the accord with Jakarta on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali to ensure a “just power sector transition” away from Indonesia’s coal-dependent economy, they said in a statement released by the White House.

Under the deal, Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, pledges to be carbon-neutral by 2050, 10 years earlier than previously planned, and to almost double its renewable energy generation by 2030.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo hailed the deal as a model that could be replicated in other countries to meet the world’s climate goals.

“Indonesia is committed to using our energy transition to achieve a green economy and drive sustainable development,” he said in a statement.

“We are grateful for the cooperation and the support from our international partners to realise its full implementation that will accelerate this transition.”

Sponsors of the deal said Jakarta had committed to an ambitious shift to clean energy in return for $10 billion in public sector finance and $10 billion in private funding over three to five years.

The financing included “grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees and private investments” for the country, which has one of the largest coal reserves in the world.

US President Joe Biden praised Jakarta’s “tremendous leadership” in sealing the partnership.

“The resulting new and accelerated targets demonstrate how countries can dramatically cut emissions and increase renewable energy while advancing a commitment to creating quality jobs and protecting livelihoods and communities,” he said.

Indonesia had questioned the terms of a 2021 deal to end deforestation by 2030 signed by over 100 countries, including the Southeast Asian archipelago, arguing it would hinder the country’s economic development.

The donor pledge announced on Tuesday was part of a slew of projects announced under an infrastructure partnership — aimed as a counter-balance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative — to provide support to poor and developing nations.

They ranged from funding for digital projects in the Pacific, to investment in the sustainable mining of nickel and cobalt in Brazil and powering solar projects in Honduras.

The global population will breach the symbolic level of 8 billion on November 15, according to the UN

A baby born somewhere on Tuesday will be the world’s eight billionth person, according to a projection by the United Nations.

“The milestone is an occasion to celebrate diversity and advancements while considering humanity’s shared responsibility for the planet,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

The UN attributes the growth to human development, with people living longer thanks to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. 

It is also the result of higher fertility rates, particularly in the world’s poorest countries — most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa — putting their development goals at risk.

– How many is too many? –

Population growth has also magnified the environmental impacts of economic development.

But while some worry that eight billion humans is too many for planet Earth, most experts say the bigger problem is the overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest people.

“Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated,” said United Nations Population Fund chief Natalia Kanem. “I am here to say clearly that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.”

Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Populations told AFP the question of how many people Earth can support has two sides: natural limits and human choices.

Our choices result in humans consuming far more biological resources, such as forests and land, than the planet can regenerate each year. 

The overconsumption of fossil fuels, for example, leads to more carbon dioxide emissions, responsible for global warming.

“We are stupid. We lacked foresight. We are greedy. We don’t use the information we have. That’s where the choices and the problems lie,” said Cohen. 

However, he rejects the idea that humans are a curse on the planet, saying people should be given better choices.

– Slowing growth –  

The current population is more than three times higher than the 2.5 billion global headcount in 1950.

However, after a peak in the early 1960s, the world’s population growth rate has decelerated dramatically, Rachel Snow of the UN Population Fund told AFP.

Annual growth has fallen from a high of 2.1 percent between 1962 and 1965 to below 1 percent in 2020.

That could potentially fall further to around 0.5 percent by 2050 due to a continued decline in fertility rates, the United Nations projects.

The UN projects the population to continue growing to about 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and peaking around 10.4 billion in the 2080s.

Other groups have, however, calculated different figures.

The US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated in a 2020 study that the global population would max out by 2064, without ever reaching 10 billion, and decline to 8.8 billion by 2100.

– Black Death – 

Since the emergence of the first humans in Africa over two million years ago the world’s population has ballooned, with only fleeting pauses to the increasing number of people sharing Earth.

Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, who had few children compared to later settled populations in order to maintain their nomadic lifestyle.

The introduction of agriculture in the Neolithic era, around 10,000 BC, brought the first known major population leap.

With agriculture came sedentarization and the ability to store food, which caused birth rates to soar.

From around six million in 10,000 BC, the global population leapt to 100 million in 2,000 BC and then to 250 million in the first century AD, according to the French Institute for Demographic Studies.

As a result of the Black Death, the human population dropped between 1300 and 1400, from 429 to 374 million.

Other events, like the Plague of Justinian, which hit the Mediterranean over two centuries from 541-767, and the wars of the early Middle Ages in western Europe, also caused temporary dips in the number of humans on Earth.

From the 19th century on, the population began to explode, due largely to the development of modern medicine and the industrialization of agriculture, which boosted global food supplies.

Since 1800, the world’s population has jumped eight-fold, from an estimated one billion to eight billion.

The development of vaccines was key, with the smallpox jab particularly helping zap one of history’s biggest killers. 

Researchers at the University of Tokyo played Mozart, Queen and Lady Gaga's hit 'Born This Way' to rats

Nodding along to catchy music is not just a human habit, according to Japanese scientists who have discovered that rats also move to the beat of songs by stars like Lady Gaga.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo played Mozart, Queen and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” to rats wearing miniature sensors to detect even the tiniest movements.

They found the rodents had an innate ability to synchronise their moves to the beat, previously believed to be a skill unique to people.

“Rats’ brains are designed to respond well to music,” even though their bodies move only a little, said associate professor Hirokazu Takahashi, part of the team who conducted the study.

“We all believe that music has magical powers, but we don’t know anything about its mechanisms,” he told AFP on Tuesday.

So “we wanted to find out what kind of sound connections appeal to the brain, without the influence of emotion or memory.”

For rats, the “bopping” effect was most pronounced for music in the range of 120-140 beats per minute — the same as humans.

This led the scientists to hypothesise that it could be a reaction that is consistent across different species.

“Music moves the body. It goes beyond the auditory system and affects the motor system… the power of sound is that great,” Takahashi said.

The research mainly focused on Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K.448, played at four different tempos.

But the scientists also tried out “Born This Way” and the driving rhythm of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, tracks picked by Takahashi’s students.

Unlike other pets such as parrots, which are famous for their uncanny imitations of music and other sounds, it was the first time the rats in the study had listened to music.

The effect of music on rats may have been overlooked until now because previous research was mainly carried out using video footage, not movement sensors, making the animals’ tiny movements more difficult to detect, Takahashi said.

The study was published last week in the peer-reviewed Science Advances journal.

In the future, Takahashi said he wants to go beyond rhythm and explore the effects of melody and harmony on the brain.

“If music has an emotional effect, it would be really interesting if we could get to the point where we could see it in animals,” he said.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts on board, represents the first step in the agency's plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars

Third time’s the charm?

After two failed attempts, NASA plans to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, less than a week after the massive machine withstood a hurricane.

“Our time is coming. And we hope that that is on Wednesday,” said Mike Sarafin, the manager of the much-delayed Artemis 1 mission, at NASA headquarters.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in the US space agency’s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, and taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars.

Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, the new space program comes 50 years after humans last set foot on lunar soil.

The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever designed by NASA, is set for Wednesday at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT), with a possible launch window of two hours.

Countdown has already begun at the storied Kennedy Space Center, where the orange and white behemoth awaits its maiden flight.

The takeoff is scheduled less than a week after the passage of Hurricane Nicole, which the rocket endured outside on its launch pad.

For now, officials are evaluating the risk associated with hurricane damage to a thin strip of caulk-like material called RTV, which encircles the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket, and makes it more aerodynamic.

Teams are looking at whether the RTV could shake loose during launch and pose problems.

Two backup dates are possible if needed, on November 19 and 25.

– Far side of Moon –

The weather promises to be mild, with a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions during the launch window. 

At the end of September, the rocket had to be wheeled back to its assembly building to be sheltered from another hurricane, Ian.

Before these weather setbacks, two launch attempts had to be canceled for technical reasons.

The first failure was related to a faulty sensor, and the second to a fuel leak when filling the rocket’s tanks. It runs on ultra-cold, ultra-volatile liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA has since replaced a seal and modified its procedures to avoid thermal shock as much as possible.

Tank-filling is now due to begin Tuesday afternoon.

About 100,000 people are expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

The Orion capsule will be lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which will detach after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

If takeoff happens Wednesday, the mission would last 25 and a half days in all, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will be almost a replay of the first mission, albeit with astronauts, in 2024. 

Boots on the ground should happen during Artemis 3, no sooner than 2025, with the crew set to include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

An aerial view shows the boat of caribou researcher Jean-Luc Kanape, a member of the Innu Indigenous group, on a waterway in Canada's boreal forest

Even though he lives in the middle of Canada’s boreal forest, Jean-Luc Kanape can sometimes go weeks without seeing a single caribou. But for as long as he can remember, the animals have been part of his life.

For centuries, “our ancestors survived thanks to the caribous — using its meat, pelts and tools made from its bones,” says Kanape, a member of the Innu Indigenous group.

“Now, it’s our turn to help them.”

The caribou is a symbol of the power of the subarctic boreal forest, but also the beating heart of Canada’s Indigenous culture.

But the broad-snouted deer is “at risk,” Kanape says, notably because of the loss of its natural habitat.

In Quebec province, the animal’s future is threatened by the lumber industry, which is crucial in some areas, providing 60,000 jobs, but which also contributes to mass deforestation.

Governments “are supposed to protect all living beings in their territory” but “do nothing” for the caribous, says Kanape, who helps the community identify and tag the remaining herds.

All around the 47-year-old’s cabin, located not far from the St Lawrence River but a two-hour drive from the nearest village, there is evidence of deforestation — the once lush mass of spruces and poplars has been hacked up.

As seen from above, the woods look like a jigsaw puzzle that has been taken apart. In some areas, trees line the ground — they will be chopped up and taken away. for the most part, they are pulped to make paper or used in construction.

– Predators –

Recent data suggests that caribous, which are called reindeer in Europe, have a better chance of survival if at least 65 percent of their living habitat is preserved.

But in this part of Canada, roughly 80 percent of their habitat has been disturbed in some way. Tree harvesting helps renew the forest, but that also brings about changes in the native flora and fauna.

Moose have arrived en masse — which also means the animals that prey on them have arrived too, notably wolves, whose migration has been facilitated by paths cut in the wilderness by the lumber companies. 

When new trees sprout up, the tiny fruit bushes that crop up alongside them also bring bears — another hunter of caribous — to the area. 

When Kanape heads out to track caribou herds, he uses both ancestral teachings and surveillance data collected by drones.

Whether traveling by boat along the river, in his pickup truck or on foot, he scours the ground for hoof prints. Each autumn, those hoofs adapt, their edges sharpening to allow the caribous to break through the ice to get at a major food source: lichen.

In recent weeks, Kanape was tracking a female caribou and her calf, who were living in a partially deforested area — putting them at risk.

“How can I make them understand that they’d be better off in more wooded areas?” says Kanape. “She came here because she knows the area, which is totally normal.” 

He sometimes chases away the wolves to give the caribous a better chance to survive through the summer.

As things stands now, a precipitous fall in the calf population of the region’s caribous makes their long-term survival not very likely, experts from Quebec’s forests ministry warn.

– Growth –

From the Canadian Rockies in the west to Quebec’s forests in the east, the caribou has seen its territory dwindle over the last 150 years, and the population has declined — a shift that nothing seems to reverse.

Since 2003, the caribou has been listed as a species at risk of extinction, and is one of the most studied animals in North America.

In Canada, its survival will depend on the expansion of the oil, lumber and mining industries. The country has struggled to implement viable plans to protect the species, researchers say.

Overall, experts are concerned that the fate of the caribou is a “tipping point” — and thus that the animal should be considered an “umbrella species” worthy of protecting, so that other animals in their habitat are indirectly saved.

“Dozens of species that don’t get the same attention also need ancestral forests — it’s a natural habitat that is vital for many,” explains Martin-Hugues Saint-Laurent, a biologist at the University of Quebec in Rimouski.

Canada’s boreal forest is home to 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish and 300 different bird species, many of them migratory.

“The forest is not just about the trees,” says Louis De Grandpre, a scientist who has been researching the issue for 30 years.

“We are just barely starting to understand the scope of what’s happening under our feet in the forest subsoil, where bacteria, mushrooms and a myriad of microorganisms are all at work.”

The Innu people, who believe they are just as much a part of the forest ecosystem as all other living creatures, advocate for the creation of a protected forest zone. 

Kanape has a far-reaching, philosophical outlook — the animal kingdom will ultimately triumph.

“When humans disappear from the Earth, the planet will be even more beautiful — it will reclaim itself,” he says.

At Fort McKay in western Canada, in the heart of the country's boreal forest, the pines and the people were long ago cleared out to make way for huge open-pit mines dedicated to excavation of oil sands

The acrid stench of gasoline permeates the air. And the soot coats everything in sight: the trees, the bushes, even the snow in winter. And all day long, explosions send the birds soaring to safety.

At Fort McKay near Fort McMurray in western Canada, in the heart of the country’s boreal forest, the pines and the people were long ago cleared out to make way for huge open-pit mines dedicated to excavation of oil sands.

It’s one of the biggest industrial projects in the world: as seen from above, the zone is in stark contrast to the vast expanse of green surrounding it. Huge black holes are gouged in the brown earth — they are giant pools of water.

Then there is the network of roads on which hundreds of trucks drive every day, and the immense factories, with smoke spewing from wide chimneys.

On the ground, the noise is deafening. And it’s quite a scene for the uninitiated: in the middle of the huge basins dug to capture the polluted waters stand huge metal scarecrows clad in helmets and security vests.

The ghoulish creatures are designed to scare away millions of migratory birds that arrive every year in this northern part of Alberta province. Adding to the mayhem: airhorns that are used several times a minute.

The mines have made the people left in Fort McKay — many of them Indigenous Canadians — very rich. But the installations have also profoundly altered and damaged the land on which their ancestors relied for centuries.

“Everything has changed, everything’s destroyed to me now,” says 74-year-old Margie Lacorde who lives in the center of town in a house chock full of knick knacks and framed photographs.

The talkative Lacorde, who belongs to the Metis people, is sad to see the parched, yellowing leaves due to drought, and wishes she could still swim in the rivers and gather berries in the forest like she did in her youth.

The hunting grounds are long gone — the land was sold for industrial use.

“The pollution is killing our nature,” Lacorde tells AFP, though she herself worked in the oil industry for years to provide for her family.

She remembers her childhood with a significant bit of nostalgia. 

Back then, families gathered snow and melted it to use as drinking and cooking water. Such a thing would be impossible today — once the snow hits the ground, it’s immediately filthy, covered in the dust that filters down from the factories.

– ‘Desecrated’ –

“We’re First Nations and this is our territory that is all being desecrated by the oil industry for the sake of the dollar, money, prosperity,” says Jean L’Hommecourt, an environmental activist who took up the fight her parents once championed.

Even if agreements were reached with Indigenous communities to create jobs and protect some natural resources, the ecological impact of mining the oil sands have been so great that the 59-year-old woman says her people are now at risk.

“I lost my prosperity when the industry came in and took over all our lands and our waters and our access to our wildlife… everything that we depend on to sustain our culture has been compromised by industry,” she says bitterly.

The area is a far cry from the picture postcard ideal of the Canadian West. There are no crystalline blue waterways or fish-filled rivers here. 

Instead, Moose Lake — sacred to L’Hommecourt’s Dene people — is now only accessible by all-terrain vehicle, a five-hour drive on a road pockmarked by potholes that runs in between the mines.

When she was growing up, L’Hommecourt’s family cabin was in the middle of the forest, far away from the noise and bustle. But after the first oil sands mine was built in 1967, development proceeded at a rapid pace.

Today, the active oil sands extraction sites form a chain that is more than 60 kilometers (40 miles) long, hugging the shores of the Athabasca River. 

Fort McKay — population, 800 or so — is a tiny speck on a map of this industrial complex.

Canada is home to 10 percent of the world’s known crude oil reserves — much of that is found in the oil sands of Alberta.

Every day, nearly three million barrels of crude are extracted from the sands, according to official government data, helping to make Canada the world’s fourth largest oil producer, and the primary exporter of crude to the United States.

In all, more than 4,800 square kilometers are used for oil sands mining.

At first, local populations were consulted and their fears were noted, L’Hommecourt says.

“And then they just said okay, well, we collected the information, we collected their concerns and everything else and we’ll mitigate with the money,” she added.

– Pollution –

Many environmental activists say the impact of the oil industry is so great that the term “ecocide” is not too strong. Beyond the tangible destruction of the boreal forest, there is the massive amount of pollution in the air.

The oil and gas sector accounts for a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the latest official figures released this year. Of that total, the oil sands are responsible for 12 percent.

And traces of other toxic emissions, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, have been detected in the soil and the snow dozens of kilometers from the mining zone.

The industry also consumes a massive amount of water, taken from nearby rivers and lakes.

“There’s still a lot we need to do on recognizing the harm from cleaning up existing operations,” says Keith Stewart of the environmental pressure group Greenpeace, slamming companies that drag their feet on such matters.

Stewart nevertheless acknowledges a “huge shift” on protecting the environment in recent years.

“For a long time, even the notion that we could limit expansion was viewed as crazy and now… the idea of large-scale expansion now seems crazy,” he said.

That reversal is not uniformly popular, as not everyone here sees the oil sands as a bad thing.

“The reality is that they shut off the oil sands tomorrow, my community would starve,” says Ron Quintal, chief of the Fort McKay Metis, noting that nearly everyone around works in or for the industry.

For Quintal, “Indigenous communities have spent 30 to 40 years… trying to get their foot in the door” so it would be “very difficult for us to try to take our people backward.”

He added matter-of-factly: “The development of the oil has empowered us to be able to do things that weren’t possible before.”

An aerial view shows the boat of caribou researcher Jean-Luc Kanape, a member of the Innu Indigenous group, on a waterway in Canada's boreal forest

Even though he lives in the middle of Canada’s boreal forest, Jean-Luc Kanape can sometimes go weeks without seeing a single caribou. But for as long as he can remember, the animals have been part of his life.

For centuries, “our ancestors survived thanks to the caribous — using its meat, pelts and tools made from its bones,” says Kanape, a member of the Innu Indigenous group.

“Now, it’s our turn to help them.”

The caribou is a symbol of the power of the subarctic boreal forest, but also the beating heart of Canada’s Indigenous culture.

But the broad-snouted deer is “at risk,” Kanape says, notably because of the loss of its natural habitat.

In Quebec province, the animal’s future is threatened by the lumber industry, which is crucial in some areas, providing 60,000 jobs, but which also contributes to mass deforestation.

Governments “are supposed to protect all living beings in their territory” but “do nothing” for the caribous, says Kanape, who helps the community identify and tag the remaining herds.

All around the 47-year-old’s cabin, located not far from the St Lawrence River but a two-hour drive from the nearest village, there is evidence of deforestation — the once lush mass of spruces and poplars has been hacked up.

As seen from above, the woods look like a jigsaw puzzle that has been taken apart. In some areas, trees line the ground — they will be chopped up and taken away. for the most part, they are pulped to make paper or used in construction.

– Predators –

Recent data suggests that caribous, which are called reindeer in Europe, have a better chance of survival if at least 65 percent of their living habitat is preserved.

But in this part of Canada, roughly 80 percent of their habitat has been disturbed in some way. Tree harvesting helps renew the forest, but that also brings about changes in the native flora and fauna.

Moose have arrived en masse — which also means the animals that prey on them have arrived too, notably wolves, whose migration has been facilitated by paths cut in the wilderness by the lumber companies. 

When new trees sprout up, the tiny fruit bushes that crop up alongside them also bring bears — another hunter of caribous — to the area. 

When Kanape heads out to track caribou herds, he uses both ancestral teachings and surveillance data collected by drones.

Whether traveling by boat along the river, in his pickup truck or on foot, he scours the ground for hoof prints. Each autumn, those hoofs adapt, their edges sharpening to allow the caribous to break through the ice to get at a major food source: lichen.

In recent weeks, Kanape was tracking a female caribou and her calf, who were living in a partially deforested area — putting them at risk.

“How can I make them understand that they’d be better off in more wooded areas?” says Kanape. “She came here because she knows the area, which is totally normal.” 

He sometimes chases away the wolves to give the caribous a better chance to survive through the summer.

As things stands now, a precipitous fall in the calf population of the region’s caribous makes their long-term survival not very likely, experts from Quebec’s forests ministry warn.

– Growth –

From the Canadian Rockies in the west to Quebec’s forests in the east, the caribou has seen its territory dwindle over the last 150 years, and the population has declined — a shift that nothing seems to reverse.

Since 2003, the caribou has been listed as a species at risk of extinction, and is one of the most studied animals in North America.

In Canada, its survival will depend on the expansion of the oil, lumber and mining industries. The country has struggled to implement viable plans to protect the species, researchers say.

Overall, experts are concerned that the fate of the caribou is a “tipping point” — and thus that the animal should be considered an “umbrella species” worthy of protecting, so that other animals in their habitat are indirectly saved.

“Dozens of species that don’t get the same attention also need ancestral forests — it’s a natural habitat that is vital for many,” explains Martin-Hugues Saint-Laurent, a biologist at the University of Quebec in Rimouski.

Canada’s boreal forest is home to 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish and 300 different bird species, many of them migratory.

“The forest is not just about the trees,” says Louis De Grandpre, a scientist who has been researching the issue for 30 years.

“We are just barely starting to understand the scope of what’s happening under our feet in the forest subsoil, where bacteria, mushrooms and a myriad of microorganisms are all at work.”

The Innu people, who believe they are just as much a part of the forest ecosystem as all other living creatures, advocate for the creation of a protected forest zone. 

Kanape has a far-reaching, philosophical outlook — the animal kingdom will ultimately triumph.

“When humans disappear from the Earth, the planet will be even more beautiful — it will reclaim itself,” he says.

Nearly 1.2 degrees of warming on average so far has seen a cascade of increasingly severe climate disasters

COP27 entered its final week Monday with rich carbon polluters and developing nations at loggerheads over how to speed up and fund reductions in emissions to slow global warming.

The standoff comes with wealthy nations pressed into acknowledging the need to compensate emerging economies for accelerating climate change, and as total funding needs appear poised to run into trillions, rather than billions, of dollars.

“There is still a lot of work ahead of us,” Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 president Sameh Shoukry said at the UN climate talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

He said countries were still split on key issues as ministers join the talks this week to seek a consensus before the summit is scheduled to end on Friday.

COP27 participants were watching for signals from the first face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping — representing the world’s top two polluting nations — at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

The White House said following the bilateral talks that the United States and China will resume climate cooperation, which Beijing had halted in anger after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.

“The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues,” the White House said.

Ani Dasgupta, president of the research non-profit World Resources Institute, said the global community was “breathing a sigh of relief”.

“There is simply no time left for geopolitical fault lines to tear the United States and China away from the climate negotiation table.”

– ‘No consensus’ on 1.5 –

Negotiators in Egypt are also eagerly waiting to see what climate message may appear in the final communique of the G20 meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

At last year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow, nearly 200 countries vowed to “keep alive” the Paris Agreement’s aspirational goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“Confirming the 1.5C goal in Bali would make our lives easier,” a senior negotiator at COP27 said.

Nearly 1.2 degrees of warming on average so far has seen a cascade of increasingly severe climate disasters, such as the flooding that left a third of Pakistan under water this summer, claiming at least 1,700 lives.

The Glasgow Pact urged nations to ramp up their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of COP27, but only around 30 nations have obliged.

This leaves the world on track to heat up by about 2.5 degrees by the end of the century — enough, scientists say, to trigger dangerous climate tipping points.

In Bali, UN chief Antonio Guterres said he would make a “strong appeal” to G20 countries, which account for 80 percent of emissions, to “have a common plan to reach net zero (emissions) globally by 2050”.

China and India have called the 1.5-degree goal into question, with Beijing pointing out that the binding target agreed in Paris was “well below” two degrees.

The more ambitious 1.5 target is non-binding, but science shows it is a far safer global threshold. 

Switzerland, on behalf of a six-nation group that includes Mexico and South Korea, proposed to introduce an item on the official COP27 agenda to reinforce the goal of “limiting global warming to 1.5C”.

“It’s mostly about securing a space for commitments on 1.5C,” said a delegate who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Developed countries backed the proposal, but China and groups of developing nations rejected it over concerns that it would imply renegotiating the Paris Agreement, several delegates said.

“Basically there is no consensus,” a Chinese delegate told AFP.

– Money talks –

For developing countries, the priority at COP27 is for wealthy nations to make good on pledges to provide $100 billion a year in aid for poorer countries to green their economies and build resilience against future impacts.

There are also deep divisions over calls to create a “loss and damage” fund through which rich polluters would compensate developing nations for the destruction caused by climate-induced natural disasters.

Wealthy nations fearful of creating an open-ended liability regime agreed only this year to include this touchy topic on the formal agenda. 

Developing nations are calling for the creation of a separate facility, but the United States and the European Union — while not precluding such an outcome — have said they favour using existing financial channels.

On Monday, the Group of 7 developed countries and nearly 60 nations most vulnerable to climate change launched a scheme aimed at providing financial support for communities battered by climate disasters, with more than $200 million of initial funding.

Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister and chair of the V20 group of nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, said the scheme “is long overdue”.