A majority of US Republicans — including 54% of self-described conservative Republicans — believe the world’s climate is changing and that mankind plays some role in the change, according to a new survey conducted by three prominent Republican pollsters. The survey was commissioned by Jay Faison, a North Carolina businessman who calls himself a conservative Republican and has announced that he intends to spend $10 million on efforts to lobby Republicans to embrace the issue of climate change. (New York Times)

US Presidential candidate Jeb Bush went back to a familiar well on Tuesday, offering up a multipronged energy policy proposal designed to make fossil fuels cheaper, more plentiful, and more profitable. Unsurprisingly, the Republican hopeful’s plan makes absolutely no mention of man-made climate change, let alone offers a single proposal to address it.  Bush also vowed to scrap the Clean Power Plan. (Slate)

The majority of Albertans support tougher climate change policies, the Globe and Mail reported, even if those policies increase costs for struggling oil companies, and half back an economy-wide carbon tax. Those are two findings in a new poll from EKOS that surveyed Alberta residents about early environmental moves made by the province’s governing New Democrats. Separately, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told the Guardian that as leader of Canada’s top emitting and biggest oil-producing province, she doesn’t see a long-term future involving fossil fuels, predicting that Alberta would wean itself off dirty energy within a century.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has released a report outlining its major concerns over the provincial plan to set up a cap-and-trade scheme. Among the issues on its wish list are clear and transparent rules regarding free allocation, that the government uses revenue from permit sales to facilitate emission cuts for businesses, and that the ETS must be aligned with other policies.

Heathrow Airport’s CEO John Holland-Kaye called for world leaders to accelerate GHG reductions and push for a mandatory carbon offset programme for the aviation industry to fight climate change.  The head of London’s biggest airport signed an open letter also seeking more research into cleaner fuels and better efficiency technology, according to a statement on Wednesday by Heathrow. The letter, released at the Global Sustainable Aviation meeting in Geneva, calls for the International Civil Aviation Organization, the industry regulator, to agree on a new carbon offset market by 2020. (Bloomberg)

And finally… A new competition is offering $20 million in total prize money to teams that can find ways to turn carbon emissions into something useful, instead of treating them as pure waste.  The NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize is being funded by US-based energy company NRG Energy and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), an industry group.

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