Caring for the Earth – Faith in Action
The Knox United Church Green Team is dedicated to encouraging and supporting green initiatives in our church and community. We seek to create opportunities for connecting our faith and creation care. We hope to inspire and empower people for action through workshops, educational talks, practical programs and worship. We encourage the use of renewable energy and products made from renewable resources. We believe it is our responsibility to live so that our children and grandchildren can have a future.
There’s good news for those interested in the transition to electric transportation. The Federal government and the Government of Quebec have announced that they are investing $100 million in a new battery assembly plant near Montreal. This battery plant is expected to be up and running by 2023 and will supply batteries to Lion Electric’s buses and trucks and hopefully help Canada transition to an electric transportation system. If we can make batteries for EV’s here in Canada, it will be cheaper and greener because they won’t have to travel a long distance. This also means more jobs for Canadians. Another spinoff for jobs is that Canada has the mineral resources used in making batteries.
For those of you who worry about the carbon footprint of batteries there is good news on this front too. Hyundai has struck a deal with Quebec-based battery recycler Lithion to implement a recycling and recovery program for its EV batteries. This technology can recover up to 95% of spent battery material, which can then be used in new batteries. This will make batteries a resource rather than a liability.
All of this is especially good to hear because a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency has found that the world needs to step up its deployment of renewables if we want any hope of achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement. At all levels, government, business, community and individually, we need to do what we can to have a just and speedy transition.
Quebec, Ottawa invest $100M to build electric vehicle battery plant | CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/trudeau-legault-electric-vehicle-announcement-1.5949998
Exclusive: U.S. looks to Canada for minerals to build electric vehicles - documents | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-canada-exclusive-idUSKBN2BA2AJ
Hyundai Canada moves to recycle EV batteries in deal with Quebec-based Lithion Recycling (electricautonomy.ca) https://electricautonomy.ca/2021/03/12/hyundai-lithion-ev-battery-recycling/
World Energy Transitions Outlook: 1.5C Pathway (Preview) (irena.org) https://www.irena.org/publications/2021/March/World-Energy-Transitions-Outlook
Green Team Movie Recommendation
This week we are thinking a lot about food waste. Globally 1/3 of the food we produce is wasted. Here in Canada much of the waste happens in our homes so the answer is to change the way we shop, cook and store food.
Just Eat It is a documentary about a BC couple who decided that for 6 months they would only eat food that was destined to be discarded and then filming that journey. The movie tells the story of food waste from farm to fork. This film will surprise and entertain you and might make you commit to wasting less.
You can see Just Eat It on the Knowledge channel It’s free!
Just Eat It |Knowledge.ca https://www.knowledge.ca/program/just-eat-it
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