Author: Susan

CRED-NB is a member of Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac) that recently issued a call for European and Canadian leaders to put ambitious climate action at the heart of their deepening partnership. The urgency is clear. Across Canada and Europe, devastating wildfires, extreme heatwaves and floods are taking an increasing toll on communities, with mounting human and economic costs. In Europe alone, this summer’s heatwaves caused more than 30,000 excess deaths, with economic losses estimated at €180 billion. In Canada, wildfires across the country, made twice more likely and more intense due to human-caused climate change, have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Read the full CAN-Rac statement HERE.

Recently a proposal to build a floating nuclear power plant with two small reactors at the Port of Belledune made the news. Is the proposed project more than just another nuclear establishment pitch for public funding? Will New Brunswick be sucked into a third SMR vortex demanding tens of millions in subsidies before spiralling into dust?

Read the commentary by CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell, published in the NB Media Co-op, HERE. Translated and published in French, HERE.

With NB Power’s Coleson Cove Generating Station near Saint John set to sunset in about 15 years, will the provincial Crown corporation switch from burning one kind of fossil fuel to burning another kind?

Earlier this year, NB Power said it was considering converting Coleson Cove from burning bunker C oil to burning fossil gas. But earlier this month, the utility released a plan stating that Coleson Cove’s operations are assumed to end in 2040 or 2041. With the Holt government conducting a review of 12-year moratorium on fracking for shale gas, one has to wonder if a conversion of Coleson Cove to gas is really off the table. Read the commentary by CRED-NB core member Sam Arnold published by the NB Media Co-op, HERE.

Every four days, a mining company in Quebec declares an accident, according to Université de Moncton philosophy professor Alain Deneault. Here in New Brunswick, Deneault warned that major projects like the Sisson mine — a proposed open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine that would be located on the upper Nashwaak River watershed north of Fredericton — could also be marred by mishaps. Deneault spoke at an event co-hosted by CRED-NB with Rodrigue Turgeon from Mining Watch Canada. The video of the event was published earlier this month by the NB Media Co-op, HERE.

Call for Submissions: Visual arts and writing competition, Forum on the energy and socio-ecological transitions

Can your artistic sensibility help us shed light on new perspectives on energy and socio-ecological issues? CRED-NB Champion the CEDAR project and collaborators invite amateur and professional artists to submit their visual or written works to a competition. The winning works will be published in a book launched at the Forum on the Energy and Socio-Ecological Transitions, which will take place at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre in Fredericton in October 2027. Submissions close November 30, 2026. Details: https://cedar-project.org/call-appel/

In early September, the organization behind Canada’s push for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) quietly signalled their demise. In 2016, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories President Mark Leskinski proclaimed that “SMRs can live among the annals of great Canadian innovations.” Ten years later, the organization announced the termination of its two programs to support SMR development.

During the intervening decade, the companies promoting the 10 SMR designs in Canada had either left the country, lost their proponents, filed for bankruptcy protection, or failed to secure private sector backing for their projects.

Read the full article published in The Energy Mix by CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell, HERE.