By Simon Dyer
Published in The Hill Times (June 5, 2019).
Any political party serious about governing in Canada and sincere about slowing climate change will put forward a climate plan designed to rapidly and significantly drive down greenhouse gas emissions here at home to improve the lives of Canadians and honour our international commitments.
What’s more, given the incredible economic opportunity that decarbonizing presents, that climate plan will be fair (by including carbon pricing that internalizes the costs of this pollutant), it will reduce emissions now (as opposed to years from now when new technologies are operationalized), and through investment in renewable energy and innovation it will position our industry as competitive in a low-carbon economy and our nation as a purveyor of the cleanest energy (yes, including cleaner oilsands exports) in the world.
Canadians need this, considering climate change is already costing Canadians billions of dollars in disaster relief and insurance coverage for floods in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta, and for wildfire damage in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories. And then there are the still-to-be accounted costs to Canadians’ health due to increasing wildfire smoke, air pollution, and vector-borne diseases (such as ticks), loss of way of life for Indigenous people in the rapidly melting North, and climate-change-accelerated wildlife loss.