Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of Feb. 16 to Feb. 22, 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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• Solar project in B.C. Hydro’s call for power kicks off environmental review
• B.C. social housing providers can apply for funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• New calf arrives for B.C.’s endangered southern resident killer whale population, spotted in Juan de Fuca Strait
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 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.
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.”
As of Feb. 5, 2026, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 428.62 parts per million, up from 427.49 ppm last month and 426.46 in December, 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.
• 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.
(Sources: United Nations IPCC, World Meteorological Organization, UNEP’s 2025 emissions gap report, NASA, Copernicus Climate Change Service, climatedata.ca)
The only solar-power facility included in B.C. Hydro’s 2024 call for power has taken a step toward regulatory approval, but it won’t be under the fast-tracked regulatory process being established by the provincial government.
Logan B.C. Solar Project LP was one of 10 independent power proposals to be awarded power purchase contracts in December 2024, as part of the call for power. The deals were all approved as being in the public interest by the B.C. Utilities Commission last August.
However, unlike the nine wind-power projects in the 2024 call, Logan B.C. Solar’s m.ah a temEEwuh proposal to be built on a 7.7 square kilometre site near Logan Lake will have to go through a full provincial environmental assessment.
Under Bill 14, certain wind-power projects were exempted from full environmental review because the technology has more history with the environmental assessment process.
This week, the partners in Logan B.C. Solar filed an initial project description with the Environmental Assessment Office for its proposed 104-megawatt solar-power facility. The office said it will look to streamline its review as a “key priority project,” according to a description on the agency’s website.
—Derrick Penner
The B.C. government is renewing funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in social, non-profit housing.
Eligible social housing providers, including non-profit organizations, co-operatives, local governments, provincial housing authorities and Indigenous housing providers, can now receive as much as $800,000 for equipment upgrades, including electrical upgrades.
The upgrades can also include heat pump retrofits, including fuel-switching from gas or other fossil fuels and building electrical system upgrades.
Projects may take as long as 18 months to complete, with B.C. Hydro administering the program.
—Tiffany Crawford
A new calf has been born to the critically endangered southern resident killer whale population in the Salish Sea.
Biologists from the Washington state-based Center for Whale Research documented the calf with L Pod on Monday near Race Rocks, off Metchosin in the Juan de Fuca Strait.
The calf, designated as L129, was travelling with 49-year-old L55, also known as Nugget, and her daughter, L103 Lapis, who is 23.
The centre said L55 would be an “exceptionally old southern resident mother, while this would be L103’s second calf. More encounters will be needed to determine the mother.”
Scientists are balancing optimism with caution.
“The calf appears to be very young, likely just a few days old at most, and it’s too early to say much about its health,” said a social media post from the centre.
Read the full story here.
—Victoria Times Colonist
U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband shrugged off criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump over his climate deal with California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The agreement announced earlier this week in London called for the British government and California to expand their cooperation to promote clean energy, fighting climate change and protecting the environment. But Trump said it was “inappropriate” for the U.K. to make an agreement directly with a U.S. state.
“I obviously don’t agree with that because we were elected to stand up for the British national interest,” Miliband said in an interview at the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting Wednesday.
Critics argue the U.K.’s green pivot has gone too far, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump mocked Europe’s push for more wind generation — describing turbines as “losers.” Democratic governor Newsom, on the other hand, has sought to reassure European allies that Trump — who has derided climate change as a “hoax” — is “temporary.”
Read the full story here.
—Bloomberg News
A fast-moving wildfire in the Oklahoma panhandle doubled in size as it pressed into Kansas while winds threatened to shift and raise fire risks across West Texas and New Mexico.
The Ranger Road Fire had consumed more than 283,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas as of Thursday, nearly 20 times the size of the island of Manhattan. In all, more than 300,000 acres have burned in Oklahoma this week as temperatures soared roughly 8 C above average and rock-bottom humidity dried out grasses and brush.
Oklahoma officials had received 33 reports of fires and hotspots spanning nearly two dozen counties, including a fast-growing fire that briefly prompted evacuations south of the Ranger Road blaze. Though the state is expected to see some relief Friday as temperatures drop and humidity creeps higher, winds are forecast to pick up across far West Texas. Two fires outside the city of Amarillo have already consumed more than 31,000 acres.
Drought conditions have plagued much of Texas and the Great Plains this winter despite recent snow and rains. Over the next week, the region is expected to remain drier and warmer than normal, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.
Read the full story here.
—Bloomberg News
Clean-energy dealmaking is showing signs of a comeback in the U.S. after last year’s sharp contraction.
One of the first notable transactions that may occur is BlackRock Inc.’s Global Infrastructure Partners teaming up with private equity firm EQT AB to acquire AES Corp., Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. The majority of AES’s power generation comes from renewable energy and is supplied to technology companies such as Microsoft Corp.
KKR & Co. and Energy Impact Partners are among other investment firms on the lookout for possible purchases.
“Investor interest is very high,” said Hans Kobler, founder and managing partner at Energy Impact Partners, which plans to deploy part of its new US$1.4 billion fund to acquire clean energy assets.
Emmanuel Lagarrigue, a partner at KKR, added that sellers’ price expectations are coming down, making the market for mergers and acquisitions “more pragmatic” in 2026.
—Bloomberg News
I’m a breaking news reporter but I’m also interested in writing stories about health, the environment, climate change and sustainable living, including zero-waste goals. If you have a story idea related to any of these topics please send an email to ticrawford@postmedia.com
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