AFP UK

At a cauldron bubbling away on a riverbank near Latvia’s Baltic coast, a queue forms of visitors eager to taste the local delicacy — a parasitic eel-like creature, the lamprey.

The animals, which feed by attaching themselves to herring and salmon and sucking their blood, were once a popular food in the Middle Ages but have gone out of fashion across much of Europe.

But in Latvia, they are still prized and celebrated at local festivals.

“When smoked or boiled in a soup, lampreys have a unique taste,” said Laura Berzina, attending one autumn festival in the town of Salacgriva.

Berzina said she had travelled some 100 kilometres (60 miles) with her family for a taste of lamprey.

As for Nataliya Alexandrova, a retired accountant from Riga: “I was born in Russia but living in Latvia has made me appreciate this fantastic food.”

A kilo of lamprey in a typical Latvian supermarket costs up to 30 euros ($35) — nearly four times more than an average kilo of beef.

According to BIOR, a food safety and animal health institute in Riga, around 50 tonnes of lamprey are caught every year in Latvia.

Despite being parasites that prey on saltwater fish, lampreys have found their way into the official symbols of coastal towns in the EU member state of 1.9 million people.

The European Commission has even included them on its list of food and drink products with “protective designation of origins”, alongside the likes of French champagne and Greek feta cheese.

In Britain, lampreys have a strong association with the royal family.

A lamprey binge is said to have been the reason for the death of King Henry I of England in 1135.

Lamprey pies are served up to this day for crowned heads in the kingdom.

– ‘Like it has been for centuries’ –

Lampreys hatch in the rivers that flow into the Baltic Sea, then migrate to feed on fish and are generally caught when they return to the rivers after seven or eight years to mate.

Fishermen use nets attached to temporary wooden constructions called “tacis” — footbridges made of wooden booms and planks that stretch across rivers.

“Each spring, when the ice on the river melts away, we rebuild our tacis,” Aleksandrs Rozenshteins, owner of a small specialised lamprey fishing company, told AFP.

The catch usually arrives when autumn storms push the lampreys from the sea back into the rivers.

Since lampreys move only at night, fishermen check their nets in the morning.

“It may vary from nothing or just a few kilos to several hundred kilos,” Rozenshteins said.

The “tacis” are then taken down for the winter.

By law, nets may cover only two-thirds of the river’s width to allow other life forms in the stream to move freely.

The only difference now from the fishing traditions of the past is the use of factory-produced nets rather than traps made of fir branches.

“Regardless of whether the lampreys are smoked, grilled or boiled in a cauldron, we keep all the fishing and cooking process just like it has been for centuries,” Rozenshteins said.

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multi-million dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals — saving the world one belch at a time.

Cattle and sheep are kept in perspex pens for two days per session as scientists carefully analyse every burp and fart that emerges from them at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

“I never thought I’d make my living measuring the gas that comes out of animals’ breath,” the facility’s director Harry Clark told AFP.

The UN says agricultural livestock accounts for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity and the centre — regarded as a world leader in livestock emissions research — is hopeful it can play a key role in tackling the problem. 

How authorities ended up funding the project to the tune of NZ$10 million (US$7.0 million) a year is a story of economic necessity and changing attitudes to climate change.

But it begins in the gut of ruminant livestock, which use microbes to partially digest their food by fermenting it in a compartment of their stomach before regurgitating it to be chewed as cud.

The process results in copious amounts of methane — a gas that has more than 80 times the ‘global warming potential’ of carbon dioxide, across 20 years according to the UN Economic Commission. 

There are estimated to be 1.5 billion cows on the planet, with each one capable of producing 500 litres (132 gallons) of the gas each day.

In addition, livestock urine produces nitrous oxide, another powerful climate pollutant.

– ‘Tantalising’ methane vaccine’ –

New Zealand’s farm-reliant economy means its proportion of agricultural emissions is much higher, accounting for around half of its greenhouse gases.

At Clark’s centre in Palmerston North, the major focus is on livestock methane, which accounts for almost 36 percent of the country’s total.

“New Zealand has a specific problem and it’s imperative we give farmers the tools and technologies to reduce their emissions,” Clark said.  

The facility, which is vetted by an ethics committee, is exploring research that includes selective breeding programmes to develop bloodlines of animals that naturally produce less gas.

Sheep have been bred that produce 10 percent less methane than average and Clark said researchers were trying to produce similar results with cattle.

Other projects include putting emission-inhibiting additives in livestock feed and even developing a harness or mask with filters that capture methane before it leaves the animal’s mouth.

But Clark said perhaps the most exciting prospect being developed in Palmerston North is a vaccine that reduces methane by targeting the microbes in the gut that produce the gas.

“It’s tantalisingly close, in the sense that it works in the laboratory but it doesn’t work in the animal yet,” he said, adding such a vaccine could be easily administered to flocks and herds worldwide, with an immediate impact on global emissions. 

It is a growing area of research globally: In the US, researchers are experimenting with probiotics for cattle, while in India, scientists are adding supplements to feed — with the aim of reducing the amount of methane produced. 

But critics warn this approach offers only short term benefits and “band-aid” solutions to major problems. 

“Reducing methane output while breeding still more methane-producing animals ignores animal suffering, deforestation, and the increased risk of diseases — including zoonotic viruses — all associated with animal agriculture,” said Aleesha Naxakis, spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

– Global shift –

New Zealand’s government has committed to reducing livestock methane 10 percent by 2030 and 24-47 percent by 2050, compared with 2017 levels.

But some have questioned why the lucrative agricultural sector is treated differently to the rest of the economy, which has been set a target of zero net emissions by 2050.

Monitoring website Climate Action Tracker rates New Zealand’s climate policies as “highly insufficient”, citing the methane carve out as one of the main reasons.

“As we look toward COP26, unless governments take immediate steps to transition our global food system away from animals and towards plants, we’re setting fire to the only home we have,” warned Naxakis. 

Clark conceded ‘getting rid of livestock, and eating more plant-based foods’ would reduce agricultural emissions and make both people and the planet healthier, but said the situation was more complex. 

He said pursuing such a major shift, rather than working to lower livestock emissions, would have significant economic and social consequences on the sector worldwide.

Clark added that the government’s funding of research into livestock emissions was only partly to do with New Zealand’s reliance on the sector. 

“Sure there’s an element of self interest, but there’s a bit of altruism there as well,” he said.

“If we can find solutions that are applicable elsewhere, that help tackle emissions in China, the US, or wherever, then New Zealand could make a major contribution, as a small nation, to the global effort to reduce emissions.”

In the heyday of the Ein Gedi spa in the 1960s, holidaymakers could marinate in heated pools and then slip into the briny Dead Sea. Now the same beach is punctured by craters.

A spectacular expanse of water in the desert, flanked by cliffs to east and west, the Dead Sea has lost a third of its surface area since 1960.

The blue water recedes about a metre (yard) every year, leaving behind a lunar landscape whitened by salt and perforated with gaping holes.

Going forward, “you might be lucky to have a channel of water here, that people will be able to put their toes in,” laments Alison Ron, a resident of Ein Gedi who once worked at the spa.

“But there will be a lot of sinkholes.”

The sinkholes can exceed 10 metres (33 feet) in depth and are a testament to the shrinking sea. Receding salt water leaves behind underground salt deposits. Runoff from periodic flash floods then percolates into the ground and dissolves the salt patches. Without support, the land above collapses.

– Ghost town –

At the Ein Gedi thermal baths, the roughly three kilometres (two miles) of rocky sand that now separate the spa from the shore are dotted with holes and crevices.

Further north, a whole tourist complex has turned into a ghost town, disfigured by craters and enclosed in fences. The pavement is gutted, the lampposts overturned, the date plantation abandoned.

Ittai Gavrieli of the Israel Geological Institute told AFP there are now thousands of sinkholes all around the shores of the Dead Sea, in Jordan, Israel and the occupied West Bank.

They reflect human policy that has literally decimated the flow of water into the Dead Sea. Both Israel and Jordan have diverted the waters of the River Jordan for agriculture and drinking water. Chemical companies have extracted minerals from the seawater.

Climate change further accelerates evaporation. In Sodom, Israel, southwest of the Dead Sea, the country’s highest temperature in over 70 years was recorded in July 2019 — 49.9 degrees Celsius, or nearly 122 Fahrenheit.

– ‘Nature’s revenge’ –

Gavrieli said the Israel Geological Institute is monitoring the formation of sinkholes from space but it is not an exact science.

He said they are certainly “dangerous” but also “magnificent.”

“It has potential to become a tourist attraction, if you’re willing to take the risk on one hand and if insurance issues are clear,” he said.

Much too perilous, answers Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of the NGO EcoPeace, for whom the sinkholes are “nature’s revenge” for “the inappropriate actions of humankind”.

“We will not be able to bring back the Dead Sea to its former glory,” he said. “But we are demanding that we stabilise it.”

His organisation, comprised of Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists, advocates increased desalination of seawater from the Mediterranean to relieve pressure on the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan, which could then flow back to the Dead Sea.

EcoPeace would also like the industry to be “held accountable” by paying more taxes.

– Inescapable decline –

Asked by AFP, a spokesman for Jordan’s water ministry offered no detailed fix for the crisis. Instead, he said the donor community should play a “vital role” in sparking interest “to find reasonable solutions to the Dead Sea problem”.

In June, Jordan abandoned a long-stalled proposal to build a canal with Israel and the Palestinians to carry water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

Instead, Amman announced it would build a desalination plant to supply drinking water.

Even if the canal had been built, it could not have saved the lake on its own, said hydrologist Eran Halfi of the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center.

“The Dead Sea is at a deficit of one billion cubic metres per year and this was supposed to bring 200 million cubic metres,” he said. “It would slow the drop but not prevent it.”

So is the Dead Sea doomed to evaporate? Scientists say its decline is inevitable for at least the next 100 years. Sinkholes will keep spreading over the century.

However, the lake could reach an equilibrium because as its surface decreases, the water becomes saltier and evaporation slows down.

In Ein Gedi, Ron said that forecast gave her little satisfaction. By diverting rivers and building factories, she said, “man has interfered”.

“We have to be ashamed of ourselves that we have allowed this to happen,” she said.

That cow may look peaceful and harmless, munching on some grass in a verdant pasture. 

But don’t be fooled — it is emitting methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas contributing to runaway global climate change.

Agriculture is responsible for 12 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions, much of it due to methane, the second most warming gas after carbon dioxide.

Methane is around 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 100-year period, but it stays in the atmosphere for only 12 years compared to centuries.

So drastically reducing methane emissions could have a major impact in mitigating the damage expected from global warming in the coming decades.

Agriculture and livestock farming generate around 40 percent of the methane related to human activities, the rest produced by the fossil fuel industry.

Much of that methane is produced by the digestive process in cows, which then burp the emissions out into the world.

Around 95 percent of the methane produced by cows come from their mouths or nostrils.

So how can we reduce the danger being belched out by cows across the world every day?

– Cows with masks –

US agricultural giant Cargill, partnering with British start-up ZELP (Zero Emissions Livestock Project), has developed a form of mask that covers cows’ nostrils.

The device filters the methane, transforming it into carbon dioxide, which per molecule has a much less potent effect on global warming.

Ghislain Boucher, head of the ruminant team at Cargill’s animal nutrition subsidiary Provimi, said the first results were “interesting”.

“Methane emissions have been reduced by half,” he told AFP.

However the device still needs to be tested in real-world conditions before it can be marketed late next year — or even in 2023.

In the short term, Cargill is starting to market in northern Europe a calcium nitrate food additive, saying that 200 grammes daily would reduce cow methane emissions by 10 percent.

The additional cost is estimated to be “between 10 and 15 cents per cow per day,” Boucher said at a breeding gathering in central France.

– Seaweed to the rescue? – 

Adding red seaweed to cow feed has far more potential, according to a US study published earlier this year, which indicated it could reduce methane emissions by more than 80 percent.

If the results can be repeated, red seaweed would need to grown in vast quantities, preferably near farming areas, the researchers at University of California Davis said.

However a question looms over the issue: how will farmers react to paying more for such measures which do not add to their bottom line, unless they are reimbursed via some kind of carbon credit?

It is also uncertain how consumers will respond. For example, will Americans who prefer corn-fed beef be as partial to the seaweed-fed variety?

And perhaps the easiest way to reduce cow methane emissions is for the world to eat less beef and diary.

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme in May pointed out that technological measures have a “limited potential to address” methane emissions from the agriculture sector.

“Three behavioural changes, reducing food waste and loss, improving livestock management, and the adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content) could reduce methane emissions by 65-80 million tonnes a year over the next few decades,” it said.

On a tiny island in Scotland’s far-flung Orkneys, thousands of sheep spend the winter munching on seaweed, a unique diet that scientists say offers hope for reducing planet-warming methane emissions.

Around 60 people share North Ronaldsay — an island just over 3 miles (5 kilometres) long, ringed by rocky beaches and turquoise waters off the north coast of mainland Britain — with the distinctive native sheep. 

Boasting brown, beige or black wool, the animals are hemmed into its foreshore owing to a large system of stone walls — called a sheep dyke — built in the early 19th century to keep them away from fields and roads.

The island’s crofters — people who live and work on so-called croft agricultural land — wanted to use every available space to grow crops and as pasture for cows.

The unintended result: in summer the sheep can nibble on grass, but by winter eating the plentiful seaweed is their only means of survival.

While some other mammals — including Shetland ponies native to the neighbouring island chain, and red deer — are known to snack on seaweed, scientists say that the North Ronaldsay sheep are unique worldwide for spending months eating only the marine plants.

– Methane reduction –

With the world facing a deepening climate emergency, they are increasingly seen by some as a case study that could lead to a breakthrough in methods for raising livestock, which is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Farm animals belch and fart methane gas which, though trivial sounding, is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Given the vast scale of the global meat industry, the issue has become a major focus for climate scientists — just as world leaders prepare to gather in the Scottish city Glasgow from Sunday for the crucial COP26 summit.

The seaweed diet of the Orkney sheep has an effect on their complex digestive system and appears to reduce the amount of methane produced.

“There’s different components in the seaweed that actually interfere with the process (of) how methane is made,” said Gordon McDougall, a researcher at The James Hutton Institute in Dundee in eastern Scotland who has been examining the sheep’s diet for two decades.

Researchers at The University of California, Davis, published results in March showing that a “bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent”.  

David Beattie, another James Hutton Institute scientist, stressed there is huge interest in such innovation.

“There’s a really big movement within the industry to try and cut out the carbon footprint that the industry as a whole has,” he told AFP.

“I see seaweed playing a part in that.”

– Scale –

This would not necessarily mean cows and sheep switching to a diet entirely comprised of seaweed like the North Ronaldsay sheep, but it could supplement their usual feed.

Seaweed is not available in large enough quantities to feed so many animals, McDougall noted, and taking away too much from the sea could also damage the environment and ecosystems.

But the marine plants — good sources of minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids — could partly replace soy, which is heavily used in animal feed but transported for thousands of miles and linked to deforestation. 

Researchers still need to determine the types and quantities of seaweed which could be best suited to adding to feed. 

“And then, can you scale that up to a level where you’d actually have an effect on the overall UK farming?” said McDougall.

The plump North Ronaldsay sheep, who chow down strands of seaweed as if they were spaghetti, are set to keep providing a useful case study.

A yellow streak representing high concentrations of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, is visible over southern Iraq on a map produced by Kayrros, a French firm that uses satellites to track leaks from fossil fuel facilities.

The source of the immense leak discovered in 2019 was never officially confirmed — and it is only one of many.

The satellite map shows blotches of colour splattering the globe from the United States to Russia, and Algeria to Turkmenistan, bearing witness to poor maintenance in the oil and gas industry.

Methane (CH4) ranks number two in greenhouse gasses emitted after carbon dioxide (CO2). But while it receives less attention, it is extremely dangerous for the environment. By weight, it creates 28 times as much warming as CO2 over a century.

“We see huge leaks, intentional or unintentional releases that are linked to the production and transport of natural gas and petrol just about everywhere in the world,” said Kayrros’s Jean Bastin.

“Today we can track them and link them with events that can be avoided easily,” he added.

Kayrros uses free data from Europe’s Sentinel satellites to find and track the methane leaks.

The fossil fuel industry is an important source of methane emissions.

The International Energy Agency estimates that it emitted 120 million tonnes of methane last year, about a third of the amount linked to human activity. Moreover, much of that leaked methane can be easily prevented at little or no cost, it believes.

The IEA said in a recent report that it “estimates that more than 70 percent of current emissions from oil and gas operations are technically feasible to prevent and around 45 percent could typically be avoided at no net cost because the value of the captured gas is higher than the cost of the abatement measure.”

– ‘We see them’ –

The European Union and the United States are drafting an agreement to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030.

“That’s completely feasible,” Kayrros President Antoine Rostand said, pointing to the all too frequent practice of emptying gas left in pipelines into the atmosphere ahead of maintenance work.

Old and poorly maintained pipelines are the biggest culprit of leaks.

“Now that we see them, there’s rising awareness,” he said.

Kayrros works for the IEA as well as oil and gas producers who are seeking to improve their environmental practices.

It also counts among is clients investment funds who are seeking to evaluate the climate risks of the companies in which they invest, Rostand said.

The use of satellites is “one of the most recent and promising advances in understanding the level of methane emissions worldwide,” the IEA said last year.

Previously companies had to set up networks of heat-sensitive cameras to catch methane leaks, which usually meant they had at best a partial view of the situation.

“A key advantage of satellites is that they can help locate large emitting sources promptly,” it added.

– Race to spot smaller leaks –

McGill University Professor Mary Kang agreed that satellites can help reduce large leaks from the oil and gas industry infrastructure. 

“However, I would say that it misses smaller leaks that can amount to a lot as well because there are many of them,” she said.

Kayrros and its competitors are working to improve the sensitivity of their technology to detect smaller leaks.

The Canadian firm GHGSat is in the process of deploying a constellation of its own satellites that it says will be able to detect emissions 100 times smaller than some current satellites.  

It already has three satellites in orbit and is deploying more.

The company is working with TotalEnergies to monitor the French firm’s offshore oil and gas facilities, which have until now escaped monitoring as the sun reflecting off the sea disrupted readings.

The US pressure group Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch its own satellite, called MethaneSAT, in order to get even more detailed readings to find small leaks.

The satellite is scheduled to be placed into orbit by SpaceX in the autumn of 2022.

On a tiny island in Scotland’s far-flung Orkneys, thousands of sheep spend the winter munching on seaweed, a unique diet that scientists say offers hope for reducing planet-warming methane emissions.

Around 60 people share North Ronaldsay — an island just over 3 miles (5 kilometres) long, ringed by rocky beaches and turquoise waters off the north coast of mainland Britain — with the distinctive native sheep. 

Boasting brown, beige or black wool, the animals are hemmed into its foreshore owing to a large system of stone walls — called a sheep dyke — built in the early 19th century to keep them away from fields and roads.

The island’s crofters — people who live and work on so-called croft agricultural land — wanted to use every available space to grow crops and as pasture for cows.

The unintended result: in summer the sheep can nibble on grass, but by winter eating the plentiful seaweed is their only means of survival.

While some other mammals — including Shetland ponies native to the neighbouring island chain, and red deer — are known to snack on seaweed, scientists say that the North Ronaldsay sheep are unique worldwide for spending months eating only the marine plants.

– Methane reduction –

With the world facing a deepening climate emergency, they are increasingly seen by some as a case study that could lead to a breakthrough in methods for raising livestock, which is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Farm animals belch and fart methane gas which, though trivial sounding, is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Given the vast scale of the global meat industry, the issue has become a major focus for climate scientists — just as world leaders prepare to gather in the Scottish city Glasgow from Sunday for the crucial COP26 summit.

The seaweed diet of the Orkney sheep has an effect on their complex digestive system and appears to reduce the amount of methane produced.

“There’s different components in the seaweed that actually interfere with the process (of) how methane is made,” said Gordon McDougall, a researcher at The James Hutton Institute in Dundee in eastern Scotland who has been examining the sheep’s diet for two decades.

Researchers at The University of California, Davis, published results in March showing that a “bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent”.  

David Beattie, another James Hutton Institute scientist, stressed there is huge interest in such innovation.

“There’s a really big movement within the industry to try and cut out the carbon footprint that the industry as a whole has,” he told AFP.

“I see seaweed playing a part in that.”

– Scale –

This would not necessarily mean cows and sheep switching to a diet entirely comprised of seaweed like the North Ronaldsay sheep, but it could supplement their usual feed.

Seaweed is not available in large enough quantities to feed so many animals, McDougall noted, and taking away too much from the sea could also damage the environment and ecosystems.

But the marine plants — good sources of minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids — could partly replace soy, which is heavily used in animal feed but transported for thousands of miles and linked to deforestation. 

Researchers still need to determine the types and quantities of seaweed which could be best suited to adding to feed. 

“And then, can you scale that up to a level where you’d actually have an effect on the overall UK farming?” said McDougall.

The plump North Ronaldsay sheep, who chow down strands of seaweed as if they were spaghetti, are set to keep providing a useful case study.

Britain’s 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth II will not attend the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow, after “advice to rest” from doctors following an overnight hospital stay, her Buckingham Palace office said Tuesday.

“Her Majesty has regretfully decided that she will no longer travel to Glasgow” for a November 1 reception, the palace said in a statement.

“Her Majesty is disappointed not to attend the reception but will deliver an address to the assembled delegates via a recorded video message,” the statement added.

The queen worked a busy schedule in early October but cancelled a visit to Northern Ireland last week on medical advice.

On Thursday, she spent the night at the private Edward VII hospital in London for “preliminary investigations”.

The hospital stay  — her first since 2013 — and the palace’s delay in revealing it have raised fears over her health, given her age. 

But the queen resumed official duties Tuesday, greeting new ambassadors to Britain in video audiences from Windsor castle west of London.

The announcement of her non-attendance at COP26 came just hours later.

– ‘At 95 there are limits’ – 

Until her hospital stay this month, she had participated almost daily in official engagements. She was recently seen walking with a cane.

The Queen’s trip to the UN climate conference had been eagerly awaited, as the royal family has become very engaged in environmental issues in recent weeks. 

Elizabeth II herself shed her usual reserve in mid-October by expressing her irritation with world leaders who “talk” but “don’t do” enough about climate change, in an apparent jibe at those not even attending the upcoming COP26 summit.

More than 120 world leaders are expected to attend the biggest climate summit since the 2015 Paris talks on November 1-2, but China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will be conspicuously absent.

Elizabeth II has reigned since 1952 and will celebrate her platinum jubilee next year. She is already the longest-reigning British monarch.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said the British sovereign would be “very disappointed to miss the climate event in Glasgow.

“But I think it’s only a sensible taking into account the fact that she’s been advised to rest,” he added. 

A source close to the monarch told the Sunday Times that Elizabeth II was “exhausted” due to her busy schedule. According to the newspaper, she has given up her lunchtime gin and Dubonnet and her evening Martini on medical advice.

She has stopped travelling abroad, being represented instead by her son and heir Prince Charles, 72.

“Clearly at 95, there are limits,” said Fitzwilliams.

The Queen’s husband Prince Philip, who was formally known as the Duke of Edinburgh, died on April 9 aged 99, just weeks short of his 100th birthday and after a period of illness.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday named prominent former climate activist Steven Guilbeault as environment minister in a major post-election cabinet shuffle ahead of a key global climate conference.

At a ceremony in Ottawa, Guilbeault was all smiles as he was sworn in alongside 37 other faces, including Anita Anand who was picked to lead a military plagued by sexual misconduct allegations, and Melanie Joly who was appointed foreign minister.

His promotion comes just days before global leaders are set to gather in Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 summit on climate change.

Guilbeault’s activism dates back to his early childhood, according to his government biography, when he climbed a tree behind his home to prevent real estate developers from chopping it down.

Decades later, he scaled Toronto’s CN Tower in a stunt to press for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, he co-founded one of Canada’s top environmental organizations (Equiterre), and he has worked in senior roles at several other groups including Greenpeace.

“Steven Guilbeault knows the issues, key players and understands the importance of environmental issues,” Greenpeace’s Patrick Bonin told AFP, praising Trudeau’s pick for environment minister.

He said the new minister’s pragmatism and strong knowledge of environmental issues will serve Canada well.

Guilbeault was first elected to parliament in 2019, serving as heritage minister in Trudeau’s second administration. 

He replaces Jonathan Wilkinson, who moves to the natural resources portfolio after recently working with his German counterpart on a target for rich countries to contribute $100 billion a year to help poorer ones fight climate change.

At the COP26 meeting that starts on Sunday, Guilbeault — who cycles to work year-round — is expected to tout Canadian measures to dramatically cut CO2 emissions including from its oil sector, which is the fourth-largest in the world.

“Climate change affects us all,” Guilbeault said, outlining “ambitious new commitments” including the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies by 2023.

Climate change was a top issue during the election, with many Canadians disappointed by rising emissions despite the introduction of a carbon tax set to increase to Can$170 per tonne by 2030.

– Women in top posts –

Trudeau was returned to power in September at the helm, once again, of a minority government, with party standings in the House of Commons almost exactly the same as prior to the snap election.

It was not the outcome the prime minister had hoped for, as strong support for his Liberals amid their solid pandemic response suddenly dissipated midway through the campaign as voter fatigue set in with his administration after he was first elected in a landslide in 2015.

On Tuesday, Trudeau said his government had been given a mandate to do “big things.”

“I’m really excited about what we’re going to be able to accomplish for Canadians and I know that this team is raring to go,” he told a news conference.

The prime minister listed priorities when parliament returns on November 22, such as accelerating the fight against climate change, further boosting Canada’s Covid vaccination rates — already among the highest in the world — bolstering the economic recovery, and continuing reconciliation with indigenous tribes.

The reshuffled cabinet consists of 38 ministers, with an equal number of women and men.

Several former ministers were dropped, including ex-astronaut Marc Garneau, and others were shuffled to new posts in a bid to breathe new life into the beleaguered Liberal government. Only a handful held onto their old jobs.

Chrystia Freeland, it was previously announced, keeps her dual roles as deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Joly, who was co-chair of the Liberals’ re-election campaign and held minor posts in past Trudeau administrations, becomes Canada’s fifth foreign minister in six years.

Although Trudeau declared “Canada is back” in 2015 — and marked a few early successes, including the airlift of Syrian refugees and the ratification of European, North American and Pacific trade deals — his foreign policy has become arguably timid in a world facing a growing number of crises.

Anand, who’d previously been in charge of the nation’s vaccine procurement, meanwhile, faces a difficult task in changing the culture of the military.

The Canadian Armed Forces, Trudeau recently commented, “still don’t get it” following several allegations of sexual misconduct in the military’s top ranks this year, adding on Tuesday that the situation has reached a “crisis” level.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday named prominent former climate activist Steven Guilbeault as environment minister in a major post-election cabinet shuffle ahead of a key global climate conference.

At a ceremony in Ottawa, Guilbeault was all smiles as he was sworn in alongside 37 other faces, including Anita Anand who was picked to lead a military plagued by sexual misconduct allegations, and Melanie Joly who was promoted to foreign minister.

His promotion comes just days before global leaders are set to gather in Glasgow for the COP26 summit on climate change.

His activism dates back to his early childhood, according to his government biography, when he climbed a tree behind his home to prevent real estate developers from chopping it down.

Decades later, he scaled Toronto’s CN Tower in a stunt to press for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, founded Equiterre — one of Canada’s top environmental organizations — and worked in senior roles at several other groups including Greenpeace.

“Steven Guilbeault knows the issues, key players and understands the importance of environmental issues,” Greenpeace’s Patrick Bonin told AFP, praising Trudeau’s pick for environment minister.

He said the new minister’s pragmatism and strong knowledge of environmental issues will serve Canada well.

Guilbeault was first elected to parliament in 2019, serving as heritage minister in Trudeau’s second administration. 

He replaces Jonathan Wilkinson, who moves to the natural resources portfolio after recently working with his German counterpart on a target for rich countries to contribute $100 billion a year to help poorer ones fight climate change.

At the COP26 meeting, Guilbeault is expected to tout Canadian measures to cut CO2 emissions including in its oil sector, which is the fourth largest in the world.

– Gender parity in cabinet –

Trudeau was returned to power in September at the helm, once again, of a minority liberal government, with party standings in the House of Commons almost exactly the same as prior to the snap election.

It was not the outcome he’d hoped for, with strong support for his Liberals for their solid pandemic response suddenly dissipating midway through the campaign as voter fatigue with his administration — first elected in a landslide in 2015 — set in.

But in his first post-election news conference earlier this month, Trudeau claimed his minority Liberal government had been given a mandate “to move even stronger, even faster on the big things that Canadians really want.”

He listed priorities such as accelerating the fight against climate change, further boosting Canada’s Covid vaccination rates — already among the highest in the world — bolstering the economic recovery, and continuing reconciliation with indigenous tribes.

The reshuffled cabinet consists of 38 ministers in total, with an equal number of women and men. Chrystia Freeland, it was previously announced, keeps her dual roles as deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Several former ministers were dropped including former astronaut Marc Garneau, and others were shuffled to new posts in a bid to breathe new life into the beleaguered Liberal party.

Joly, who was co-campaign chair of the Liberals’ re-election campaign and held minor posts in past Trudeau administrations, becomes Canada’s fifth foreign minister in six years.

Although Trudeau declared “Canada is back” in 2015 and marked a few early successes including the airlift of Syrian refugees, and the ratification of Europe, North America and Pacific trade deals, his foreign policy has been arguably timid in a world facing a growing number of crises.

Anand, who’d previously been in charge of the nation’s vaccine procurement, meanwhile, faces a difficult task changing the culture of the military.

The Canadian Armed Forces, Trudeau recently said, “still don’t get it” following several allegations of sexual misconduct in the military’s top ranks this year.

He was reacting to the appointment, to lead a review of sexual misconduct cases, of a general who wrote a positive character reference to a judge for a soldier found guilty of sexually assaulting another.