If we are serious about tackling climate change, we need a climate action plan that meets the magnitude and the seriousness of the climate problem. We need to quickly bridge the widening gap that exists between current climate ambition and the ongoing rise of greenhouse gases now spiralling out of control.
Simply put, we need an “all hands on deck” strategy. The Green Party of Canada’s Mission: Possible is just that. It delivers! ” It places Canada on something equivalent to a war footing to ensure the security of our economy, our children and their children – our future.”
Mission:Possible – Climate Action That Delivers
1. Declare a Climate Emergency
Accept, at every level of government, that climate is not an environmental issue. It is the gravest security threat the world has ever seen.
2. Establish an inner cabinet of all parties
Modelled on the war cabinets of Mackenzie King and Winston Churchill, parties will work together to ensure that climate is no longer treated like a political football. It requires all hands on deck
3. Set stringent new targets
Establish our new target and file it as Canada’s Nationally Determined Contribution with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: 60 per cent GHG reductions against 2005 levels by 2030; zero emissions by 2050.
4. Assume leadership
Attend the next climate negotiation in Chile this year and press other countries to also double their efforts.
5. Respect evidence
Restore funding of climate research within the Government of Canada and in the network of universities that received financial support before 2011.
6. Maintain carbon pricing
Revenue neutrality will be achieved through carbon fee and dividend and we will eliminate all subsidies to fossil fuels
7. Ban fracking
No exceptions. It destroys ecosystems, contaminates ground and surface water, endangers our health and it’s a major source of GHGs.
8. Green the grid
By 2030, remove all fossil fuel generation from our national east-west electricity grid.
9. And modernize the grid
By 2030, rebuild and revamp the east-west electricity grid to ensure that renewable energy can be transmitted from one province to another.
10. Plug in to EVs
By 2030 ensure all new cars are electric. By 2040, replace all internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles, working with car makers to develop EVs that can replace working vehicles for Canadians in rural areas. Build a cross-country electric vehicle charging system so that drivers can cruise from St. John’s, NL to Prince Rupert, B.C. – with seamless ease.
11. Get Canada back on track
Modernize VIA Rail, expand service and ensure trans-modal connections across Canada to light rail and electric buses, so that no one in rural and remote areas of Canada lacks efficient, affordable and safe public transit.
12. Complete a national building retrofit
Create millions of new, well-paying jobs in the trades by retrofitting every building in Canada – residential, commercial, and institutional – to be carbon neutral by 2030.
13. Turn off the tap to oil imports
End all imports of foreign oil. As fossil fuel use declines, use only Canadian fossil fuels and allow investment in upgraders to turn Canadian solid bitumen into gas, diesel, propane and other products for the Canadian market, providing jobs in Alberta. By 2050, shift all Canadian bitumen from fuel to feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
14. Switch to bio-diesel
Promote the development of local, small scale bio-diesel production, primarily relying on used vegetable fat from restaurants. Mandate the switch to bio-diesel for agricultural, fishing and forestry equipment.
15. Create new partnerships for renewables
Form partnerships with Indigenous peoples, providing economic opportunities by ramping up renewables on their lands. Harness abandoned deep oil wells, wherever feasible, for geothermal energy, using workers who drilled the wells to manage the renewable energy generation.
16. Call for all hands on deck
Engage every municipality and community organization, as well as every school and university to step up and plant trees, install solar panels, heat pumps, assist in retrofitting buildings to maximize energy efficiency.
17. Prioritize adaptation
Invest significant resources in adaptation measures to protect Canadian resource sectors such as agriculture, fishing and forestry from the ravages of climate change. Review all infrastructure investments for adaptation to climate change. Map flood plains, tornado corridors and other areas of natural vulnerability and adjust land use plans accordingly.
18. Change planes
Cancel the purchase of F35s and buy more water bombers to protect communities from forest fires. Cut standing dead timber to establish fire breaks and save live.
19. Curtail the “other” GHG sources
Address the fossil fuel use that falls outside the Paris Agreement – emissions from international shipping, aviation and the military.
20. Restore carbon sinks
Launch a global effort to restore carbon sinks, focusing on replanting forests and restoring the planet’s mangrove forests as quickly as possible.
Holding to 1.5 degrees is not negotiable. It is do or die.
Accreditation: The content of this article is sourced from The Green Party of Canada website. You can view the full climate plan here.
Climate Change Is Twice As Bad In Canada: It’s Time To Be Bold
Ten Years to Zero: The Emergency And The Mobilization
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
If the goal in the coming election is to provide balanced solutions to the Climate Crises … this website should also be highlighted … https://www.shakeuptheestab.org/ as well of course the NDP’s Power to Change Plan … https://www.ndp.ca/power-to-change
As the Guardian article pointed out last year … all solutions, both private and public, i.e., individual and collective need to be used. De-carbonizing question answered: “what should we aim for?” is simple: cut carbon pollution as much as possible, as fast as possible. Until the world reaches zero carbon, the answer will always be the same. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/oct/15/theres-one-key-takeaway-from-last-weeks-ipcc-report
Welcome to Below2C Bill.
I like the links you’ve provided for readers. The Guardian is the best source of climate news from mainstream media. They get it. I encourage Below2C readers to support the Guardian.
Thank you for your interest and feedback, and for the links.
The Green Party plan seems very similar to the NDP one at https://www.ndp.ca/power-to-change. I am really worried about vote-splitting. Why can’t these two parties work out a coalition agreement?
I still don’t like the Green commitment to tar sands oil, even for Canada-only use, when it is the dirtiest oil available. Also, I don’t believe that all buildings can be retrofitted by 2030, based on my calculations, and older buildings can never be made carbon neutral until they are heated electrically with renewable energy AND have solar panels.
In comparison, the NDP platform is at https://www.ndp.ca/power-to-change. It sets a 2050 retrofit building deadline, and a 2030 deadline for an “energy-efficient” code for new buildings. We DO need a net-zero-energy building code for new buildings, but it requires no new technology and could be implemented within almost immediately.
Both promise to cancel all fossil-fuel incentives. Neither is fully costed yet.
Alan,
I like the NDP plan very much. It is more detailed and more comprehensive at this time. The Greens have yet to cost their plan and fill in all the blanks.
What I find fascinating is the amount of resources going into making climate the key election issue. Three parties are competing for climate supremacy – Liberals, NDP and GReens. The Conservatives will announce something but one can be sure it will leave out carbon pricing. It will me meant to get the vote of the 30-35% of Canadians are are lukewarm on climate. What worries me is the splitting of the pro-climate votes thus paving the way for the Cons to slither back in to power.
Thank you for your feedback/comments
We have no choice but give it all our best.
Logical fallacies have been used to make stable Climate seem like an impossible dream.
Here is an example with one of my favorite villains: https://youtu.be/w2CxDu7jiyE?t=269
I may have to write about this and get it out on the newspaper Wednesday.
Luis – welcome to the Below2C community.
As Frank White points out in this thread, the likelihood of resolving the global heating issue and climate change is quite small. And of course we must give it our best shot. But I often think that even “our best shot” will only result in mitigating the pain and prolonging the long agony of humanity’s decline.
Thank you for your comments.
To paraphrase Dr. Nate Hagens — In order to diagnose what we should do about climate change and plot a way forward we first have to analyze and understand the bigger picture, the very nature of our human predicament.
The Green Party’s simplistic 20-step, cut-and-paste to-do list shows no hint of having been based on an in-depth scientific analysis of the nature of our predicament.
Dr. Hagens, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, developed a systems synthesis approach on the big-picture issues facing human society. The bigger picture, says Hagens, tells a different story, one that integrates human behaviour, energy, and money into this superorganism, emergent dynamic of how humans are currently functioning. Under this framing, viewing humanity as a superorganism, he declares four things that are NOT likely to happen –
“We’re not likely to grow the economy AND mitigate the Sixth Mass Extinction and climate change; We’re not likely to grow the economy by getting rid of the bad fuels and replacing them with rebuildables [renewables that have to be rebuilt every 20-30 years]; We’re not likely to choose to leave fossil carbon in the ground because it’s so tethered to our experiences, our life standards, our wages, our profits, our growth, the cheap stuff that we buy; and Governments are not likely to embrace limits to growth before limits to growth are well past.”
To find out more about Hagens’ analysis of our situation, watch his 2019, 46-minute Earth Day talk, which includes my complete transcript, by following this ShortLink https://wp.me/pO0No-4Iz . The title : subtitle of my post is “The Great Simplification coming next decade with 30% drop in capitalist economies, says Dr. Nate Hagens” : Globally, we’re turning into an energy-squandering superorganism, like some energy-hungry, blind, purposeless amoeba.
Thank you Frank for sharing this very sobering analysis on the likely outcome of humanity. I don’t like it but I think it’s quite accurate.
Dr Tim Ball – Historical Climatologist
Book ‘The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science’.
Book “Human Caused Global Warming”, ‘The Biggest Deception in History’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzpPXuASY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzpPXuASY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO08Hhjes_0
https://www.technocracy.news/dr-tim-ball-on-climate-lies-wrapped-in-deception-smothered-with-delusion/
http://www.drtimball.com
I’ve allowed your comment but normally do not approve feedback from deniers like you. It’s just a reminder to those who follow Below2C that people like you still exist out there. You are wasting our time. We will not be deterred or sidetracked. Go away!