Climate Emergency Unit News and Blog
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From leader to follower: B.C.’s updated climate plan – its “CleanBC Roadmap to 2030” – is not an emergency plan
by Seth Klein
On Monday October 25, the British Columbia government released the long-awaited update to its provincial climate plan, dubbed its “CleanBC Roadmap to 2030.” it is not an emergency plan. The B.C. government is very keen about its reputation as a climate leader, and repeatedly claims that its plan is “continent-leading.” A reasonable case in support of this proposition might have been possible three years ago. But it is not true any longer.
Message to our new Parliament: Time for a real climate emergency plan
By Seth Klein
Just a few months ago, it seemed like climate would struggle to make an appearance in this election, pushed aside by the pressing realities of the COVID crisis. But in a positive turn of events this election, we saw parties competing with each other about which had the stronger and most convincing climate plan. Canadians want to see bold action on climate. But once again, support for that action has been split across numerous parties. Hence this minority outcome. Now we need them to co-operate and get it done.
Canada needs a national Youth Climate Corps – we’ve proven it works
Guest post by Ben Simoni and Melissa Lavery
Seth Klein has written a “case for the Youth Climate Corps in Canada.” South of the border, U.S. President Biden and other elected officials are pushing for the creation of a “Civilian Climate Corps” with billions of dollars in potential start-up funding. Whether it's called the YCC, the CCC, or something else, this is the big, interdisciplinary solution we need. Young people need opportunities and Canada needs young people’s energy to meet the climate change challenge. In southeast B.C., we’ve shown it works through a homegrown proof-of-concept. Now, we need the federal government – whatever political party takes the reins -- to scale up.
Why tackling inequality and the climate crisis must go hand-in-hand
Today, Sept. 17, marks the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (I know, I was surprised, too). On this day in 2011, a mass protest began in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, located in the heart of the financial district. It lasted weeks and spread to cities around the world, including many in Canada.
And while the protests themselves eventually fizzled, Occupy profoundly shifted the zeitgeist. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, these protests elevated the issue of inequality to an unprecedented degree, and exploded the concept of “the one per cent versus the 99 per cent” into the public imagination.
A different take on rating the party climate platforms(and why you should take Mark Jaccard’s ratings with a hunk of salt)
by Seth Klein
SFU economist Mark Jaccard, in his recent assessment of federal party climate platforms published in Policy Options, finds the Liberals’ climate plan the “most sincere” of those on offer, followed by the Conservatives, then the Greens, and lastly, the NDP. Jaccard’s piece has been irresistible candy for the political punditry, and has been quickly turned into Liberal campaign talking points. But it’s fundamentally flawed. The main problem with Jaccard’s ratings is he’s measuring the wrong thing. His ratings are primarily derived by determining whether the policies proposed by each party would credibly meet that party’s own stated GHG reduction target. But by this measure, the more ambitious the target, the less likely Jaccard is to find your plan credible. It’s like an Olympic diver getting the top score because she or he successfully nails the least complicated dive.
In a climate emergency election, find your climate justice champion
by Seth Klein
The path to victory with a real climate emergency and a just transition plan is narrow. To win one, two elements are needed: First, we desperately need to hold the government to a minority. Second, we need to elect a huge contingent of true climate justice champions — people who genuinely get the emergency and will insist on bold action. With the country on fire, we need to elect political firefighters. We need to bolster the ranks of the climate squad across a number of parties. So, find your climate champion! If you don’t think you have one in your riding or, more likely, you don’t think they have a realistic chance of winning in your riding, then find one in a neighbouring winnable riding, and do everything you can to get them elected — donate, volunteer, organize, and vote.
Time to ban fossil fuel advertising
By Seth Klein
We no longer allow cigarette and tobacco ads on TV, radio or in movie theatres, given the known harm these products cause. Why then do we permit ads for the fossil fuel products we know to be a civilizational threat? These ads send a message, even if we don’t buy the specific product they are selling. They normalize what must now be wound down. Emergencies need to look, sound and feel like emergencies. But ubiquitous advertising of fossil fuel vehicles, gas stations, gas suppliers and appliances, air travel and the ongoing sponsorship of arts and sports events by fossil fuel companies all sends a confusing message — are we facing a climate emergency or aren’t we?
B.C. is in a state of climate emergency without an emergency plan: As the crisis manifests, it’s time the provincial government gave its climate plan a reboot
By Seth Klein
British Columbia is having its summer of reckoning with the climate emergency. With a jolt to our collective consciousness, most of us now understand the emergency is well and truly upon us. But we meet this moment unprepared, without a genuine and robust climate emergency plan, and with a political leadership that seems unwilling or unable to “get it” on climate. CleanBC, the province’s official climate plan, is frequently touted as the strongest such plan in Canada. And relatively speaking, it likely is. But that’s not saying much. What the plan is decidedly not is an actual climate emergency plan. In this piece, I consider B.C.’s current climate plan against what I call the “Four Markers of Emergency Mode.”
Can Jonathan Wilkinson be our C.D. Howe?What it means to occupy a pivotal cabinet post in a time of emergency
by Seth Klein
When it came time for the Canadian government to meet the emergency of the Second World War, one man (they were all men) within Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s cabinet stood out – C.D. Howe. Today, as we struggle to meet the climate emergency, another transformation of our economy is called for. And that has me wondering: Can Jonathan Wilkinson, our federal minister of environment and climate change, the person charged with overseeing the decarbonization of Canada’s economy and society in the face of a civilizational threat, be our C.D. Howe?
The case for a Youth Climate Corps
By Seth Klein
The climate mobilization in Canada has yet to feel like a grand societal undertaking. Among the bold initiatives that would send such a signal — an audacious Youth Climate Corps. As the world has begun to confront the climate crisis, the last few years have seen a burgeoning of youth leadership. As in WWII, youth are once again mobilizing to secure our collective future. But so far, our governments have failed to create public programs to accept and deploy their energies and talents. A new generation of young people needs a way to meet this moment.
Time to stop playing nice with fossil fuel companies blocking climate emergency action
By Seth Klein
The country’s leading “natural” gas companies seek to impede electrification. Among the many barriers we face to a genuine climate emergency plan is a fossil fuel industry that has insidiously used its economic and political power to stall meaningful action. In this piece, I add into evidence some recent examples of the “natural” gas industry making mischief with needed climate action. Fuel-switching our buildings to electricity — mainly by means of high-efficiency electric heat pumps and induction electric stoves — represents a vital and urgent piece of decarbonizing our society and driving down GHG emissions. But natural gas utilities are employing a bag of tricks to slow the move to electrify our buildings.
BC is failing to do its part to address the global climate and biodiversity crisis
By Anjali Appadurai and Jens Wieting
New climate data and commitments shared by other nations during the Earth Day Climate Summit in April told a promising story: Growing numbers of countries and regions around the world are making progress, reducing pollution and willing to do what is necessary to address the intersecting crises of climate, biodiversity and Covid-19. Unfortunately, Canada and British Columbia are not yet part of this group.
Your MP has A Good War!
News
You might be pleased to know that, after one of Seth’s recent webinars, a woman in Kingston named Mary Jane Philp decided to purchase 338 copies of A Good War and have it delivered it to every Member of Parliament in Canada. You can see more about what she did here. As MJ wrote in her cover note to all MPs, “We need brave and visionary leadership like our lives depend on it – because they do.”
A moment – yet to come – for federal leadership on the climate emergency
By Seth Klein
After a year in which the pandemic stalled progress on climate mobilization, momentum seems once again to be picking up. The Supreme Court has said the federal government can and should lead. National governments, including Canada’s, are ramping up their greenhouse gas reduction targets. It feels like climate might again surface as a central issue in the next federal election.
Yet a harrowing gap remains between what science says is required and the policy and budgetary commitments we’ve seen so far.
Budget 2021 falls short on transformational climate action
By Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood & Clay Duncalfe
The much-anticipated 2021 federal budget was presented this week with a historic investment in a national child care program and the extension of COVID-19 support programs.
Although climate change and a green economy didn’t make the headlines, the budget allocated a significant amount of money toward protecting the environment and investing in a cleaner economy—$41 billion in total, by our count.
Biden vs Trudeau on what climate leadership looks like (spoiler alert: Trudeau is not looking good)
By Seth Klein
Next week, U.S. President Joe Biden will be hosting a climate summit, to which he has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. My, how the tables have turned.
Seven years ago, Trudeau was the golden new arrival on the global scene, an embodiment of hope at home and abroad, particularly with respect to the defining challenge of our time — the climate emergency. In the Trump era, Trudeau seemed a beacon of climate sanity and action (at least in the North American context). But today, the U.S. is catapulting ahead of Canada, with Biden seizing the mantle of exciting climate leadership, while Trudeau’s record appears lacklustre and tepid in comparison.
Can the Alberta NDP tell a new climate story?
By Seth Klein
Two years ago, with the right reunited and back in government in Alberta, led by a triumphant Jason Kenney, it seemed hard to imagine the Alberta NDP returning to government any time soon. But in a stunning turnaround, the prospect of Rachel Notley’s NDP being re-elected in 2023 no longer seems at all far-fetched.
While most Canadian premiers have seen a rise in their popularity during the pandemic, Kenney’s has plummeted, with his approval ratings currently the third lowest among Canada’s premiers. As of late 2020, the Alberta NDP had surpassed Kenney’s United Conservative Party in opinion polls. More recently, the NDP has secured a commanding lead.
Three ways Trudeau can catch up with Biden’s ambitious climate agenda
By Cam Fenton, Canada Team Lead for 350.org
Last week, President Joe Biden signed sweeping executive orders on climate change. As expected, the orders reversed a wide range of Trump-era environmental rollbacks, but they didn’t stop there. In both symbol and substance, Biden’s early climate actions have positioned him to potentially emerge as one of the world’s most ambitious political leaders when it comes to climate change. And, it put Canada in a difficult situation, showing just how wide the gap is between what we need to do and what Justin Trudeau is actually doing.