A press release says funding the huge Tata Power project will help to expand electricity use across five states in western and northern India. This is in keeping with the “higher energy use” sought under “the development goals of the Bank Group and our client countries.”

While the release did say the bank group will try “to balance these energy needs with concerns about climate change,” it also cautioned that “fossil fuels are likely to remain a key contributor to the world’s electricity needs.”

Uh-oh!

You don`t always find Olympic medalists wandering around in search of inspiration. But Sara Renner is not just any Olympic medalist.

Renner is the cross-country skier whose Olympic dream brushed the rocks in Turino in 2006 when her pole snapped halfway through a sprint event she was skiing with teammate Beckie Scott. She was rescued, just as suddenly, when Norwegian ski coach Bjoernar Haakensmoen ran over and handed Renner a new poll – and she raced off to capture a Silver Medal (displacing the Norwegian team to fourth spot).

“We have passed the tipping point, but I don’t believe that we have passed the point of no return.”

That was Al Gore Saturday, trying to reassure the 250 volunteers who had come to Montreal to learn to spread The Inconvenient Truth.

Saturday was the serious work day at The Climate Change-Canada’s first training session, with Al Gore leading a diverse and clearly committed group of volunteers through his Academy Award-winning presentation, slide by slide.

Al Gore strode into Montreal Friday evening and the city embraced him as one of its own. In fact, I can’t quite imagine that he gets quite this kind of welcome anywhere else.

First of all, his visit was sponsored by La Presse, which guaranteed a pretty compelling advance. And if the front page coverage wasn’t impressive enough, the full-colour special section on climate change would have to turn your head.

The Democratic presidential hopeful says he would offer the former vice-president and Nobel prize winner a cabinet-level or higher role in tackling global warming.

The remark was sure to heighten competition between Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, as Gore is a coveted endorsement as a leading voice for combating greenhouse emissions.