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Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of May 11 to May 17, 2026.
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Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science.
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Check back every Saturday for more climate and environmental news or sign up for our Sunrise newsletter HERE.
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In climate news this week:
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• Could B.C. be forced to accept the construction of another route from the oil sands to Asian markets?
• ‘This winter was a tough one’: B.C.’s parks are being battered by extreme weather
• B.C. Hydro waiting on purchase agreements for four wind projects as part of call for power
• Worst start to wildfire season raises alarm as El Niño threatens
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Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface and ocean temperature.
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The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.
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According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
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As of May 5, 2026, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 431.12 parts per million, up from 429.35 ppm the previous month, according to the latest available data from the NOAA measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960.
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Quick facts:
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• The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
• 2025 was the third warmest on record after 2024 and 2023, capping the 11th consecutive warmest years.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
• UNEP’s 2025 Emissions Gap Report, released in early December, shows that even if countries meet emissions targets, global temperatures could still rise by 2.3 C to 2.5 C this century.
• In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
• There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.
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Latest News
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Ottawa’s latest deal with Alberta another step toward a new pipeline through B.C.
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B.C. is crying foul after Ottawa signed a second agreement on energy with Alberta that lowers the amount companies in the oil-producing province have to pay for emissions and takes another step toward the construction of a new oil pipeline to the west coast.
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“As a country, it’s time to stop rewarding bad behaviour,” said Premier David Eby after Friday’s agreement, calling out Alberta’s separatist movement that is supported by up to 50 per cent of the members of the province’s ruling United Conservative Party, according to some polls. “It cannot be the case that the projects that get prioritized in Canada are those where a premier threatens to leave the country.”
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In November, Eby opposed the first agreement between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that included language in support of one or more pipelines to the B.C. Coast in exchange for oilsands producers installing carbon-capture technology.
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Friday’s agreement sets a July 1 deadline for Alberta to submit a pipeline proposal to Ottawa’s major projects office, with Carney promising to provide the necessary conditions for construction by Sept. 1, 2027.
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—Alec Lazenby
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‘This winter was a tough one’: B.C.’s parks are being battered by extreme weather
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After rain and snowmelt washed away part of a Chilliwack trail that borders the Vedder River late last year, city crews got to work. A team of 30 people removed debris, then regraded and reapplied gravel to restore access to the Vedder Rotary Trail, which has an average of 3,000 users each day. By January, the trail was mostly open to walkers, cyclists and equestrians. And then it was damaged again — and again.
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“This winter was a tough one,” said Drew Pilling, senior operations technician with the City of Chilliwack’s operations department.
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Three storms in three months, including an atmospheric river on Dec. 12 and another a month later on Jan. 12, sent a torrent of debris-laden water rushing down the Vedder River, while a third storm on March 20 brought both high water and high winds. Each storm left a mess, closing parts of the trail before crews could reopen it again.
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Across B.C., extreme weather has led to temporary closures of dozens of parks, trails and campsites over the past five years, costing millions in repairs and raising questions about the safety and sustainability of B.C.’s park system.
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Increasingly frequent storms, heat waves and drought — and their consequences, such as floods, wildfires and pest problems — come at a time when park infrastructure across the country is aging and, in some cases, falling into disrepair, said Christopher Lemieux, associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.
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Noonan pointed to research that indicates the demands on parks will only increase as the climate changes, with warmer springs and longer falls creating more demand as the number of visits increases.
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—Glenda Luymes
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B.C. Hydro waiting on purchase agreements for four projects as part of call for power
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The province and B.C. Hydro have selected four wind projects for purchase agreements from the roster of 14 proposals that were submitted as part of the 2025 call for power.
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Two of the projects, Bessie Wind Project and Sweetwater Wind Project, are in Dawson Creek, with the other two selected being the Nicola Wind Project in West Kelowna and the Taylor South Wind Project in Taylor.
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Energy Minister Adrian Dix told reporters in Vancouver that the projects will combine to add 3,500 gigawatts of electricity to the power grid, which he said is enough to power 350,000 homes and boost B.C. Hydro’s capacity by five per cent.
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The government has launched two calls for power as it seeks to increase its power capacity by an additional 20 per cent amid growing demand, which has been exacerbated by persistent drought in certain regions of the province.
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Dix, however, said the four projects selected in this second call for power, combined with the 10 projects combining for 5,000 gigawatts of electricity in the previous call for power, are a solid step in the right direction.
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—Alec Lazenby
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India’s top banks failing to tackle climate risk as threats grow
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India’s largest banks need to do more to incorporate climate risks into lending decisions as the country suffers escalating impacts from the effects of global warming, according to a new analysis.
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While 92 per cent of major lenders now disclose at least some climate-related data — up from 40 per cent in 2022 — there’s little evidence it is being used to inform policy or limit exposures, an assessment of 35 banks by Bengaluru-based think tank Climate Risk Horizons found.
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“The economic impacts of physical climate risks such as floods, heat, and drought are worsening,” said Sagar Asapur, the group’s head of sustainable finance and a co-author of the report. Those threats “cannot be treated as peripheral sustainability concerns. They affect borrower cash flows, collateral quality, and portfolio stability.”
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Less than half the banks examined had begun climate stress testing work, and none disclosed the results of the exercises, including potential impacts on asset quality or portfolio performance, according to the report published Wednesday.
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Costs of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change are mounting in India, with incidents triggering losses of US$1 billion or more now increasingly common, according to Swiss Re. Total losses in 2023 topped $12 billion, the Centre for Environment and Energy Development said in a report last year.
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—Bloomberg News
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UN climate chief lavishes praise on China as Trump Meets Xi
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China is reaping benefits as a global leader on the green transition and other nations should follow as the Iran war shows the vulnerability of a fossil fuel-based economy, according to the top United Nations climate official.
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“The further China goes, the faster the clean energy transition accelerates — the greater the benefit to your people and economy,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in the text of a speech to be delivered Thursday in Beijing. “Where China leads, others follow. ”
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Stiell’s comments at Tsinghua University — home to several of China’s leading climate institutes — coincided with President Donald Trump’s visit to the city for talks with China’s leader Xi Jinping, and highlighted the differing paths on green action between the world’s top two polluting nations.
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“It is in every country’s interest to seize this moment, for prosperity and for stability,” Stiell said. “That requires doubling-down on climate multilateralism.” Trump’s administration in January completed the withdrawal of the US for a second time from the Paris Agreement, the binding 2015 accord to combat global warming.
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—Bloomberg News
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Worst start to wildfire season raises alarm as El Niño threatens
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Record-breaking heat and drought have fuelled the world’s worst ever start to a wildfire year, as climate change and a developing El Niño threaten to push extreme weather to new heights.
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Over the first four months of this year, more than 150 million hectares was burned, according to satellite estimates from the Global Wildfire Information System. That’s an area nearly the size of Alaska and roughly double the seasonal average for this period.
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“This rapid start, in combination with the forecast El Niño means that we’re looking at a particularly severe year,” said Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather and climate researcher at Imperial College London.
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This year’s early season wildfires have overwhelmed fire crews in Argentina, Chile and Japan, while fuelling historic blazes in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
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The fire surge is a symptom of a broader trend of extreme weather that’s expected to worsen this year. Heat waves are likely to put further pressure on agricultural systems and global supply chains for food, while higher cooling demand could compound the energy shock from the Iran war, scientists say.
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Sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere is the lowest recorded for this time of year, and oceans are approaching record-high temperatures, data from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute show. New heat records have already been set this year, from Australia and Greenland to France and the U.S. Southwest. Spain and Brazil have witnessed historic rainfall.
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—Bloomberg News
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