Tackling climate change in Canada requires global action
As Canada warms twice the rate as the rest of the world, it is in our interest to play a leading role on the global stage to facilitate greater collective action to address climate change.
As Canada warms twice the rate as the rest of the world, it is in our interest to play a leading role on the global stage to facilitate greater collective action to address climate change.
When it comes to figuring out which levers we should use to build our economy, we should ask ourselves how we can build an economy that will support the kind of just and fair society most of us want to live in.
If the federal government wants to rescue its agenda of market-based climate incentives, it should realize that complexity is the enemy of transparency.
Truly massive public and private investments will have to made in research, in energy conservation and in the production of renewable energy over the next few years if we are to meet and exceed the goal recently set in Paris to stop to avoid global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees.
If we recognize the overlaps between different sectors, drawing dichotomies between “green” and fossil fuel jobs are unhelpful. We really need to think about how our existing set of skills and resources can be leveraged to build a low-carbon economy.
Canada is already seen as having Russia, Saudi Arabia and other similar states as its principal allies on climate change – any attempt to present itself as a more constructive country on this issue will be seen as the farce it is.
The federal role must therefore be to show leadership by bringing the provinces together to develop a national plan, leveraging investment, and supporting a long-term transition through targeted innovation, research, development and commercialization of new technologies.