NEWS RELEASE
SUSTAINABLE ORILLIA
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When COP26, the international climate meeting in Glasgow, ended last Saturday, there were many that were disappointed. Greta Thunberg, as usual, was crushingly succinct in her reaction: “The #COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah.”
She was more explicit in a Nov. 7 Twitter comment: “Unless we achieve immediate, drastic, unprecedented, annual emission cuts at the source, then that means we’re failing when it comes to this climate crisis. ‘Small steps in the right direction,’ ‘making some progress’ or ‘winning slowly’ equals losing.”
Most environmental scientists agree with her assessment of the difference between the actions needed and the actions being taken.
Yet the climate conference did yield some positive actions. The first major commitment to emerge from the conference was a big one: “more than 100 leaders, representing more than 85 per cent of the world's forests, agreed to end deforestation by 2030. Among the nations taking part in the pledge are Canada, Russia, Colombia, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which holds some of the world's most important carbon sinks.
"Crucially, Brazil also signed up. A deforestation crisis has ravaged the Amazon in recent years, putting one of the world's most critical natural defences against climate change at risk, and the country's President, Jair Bolsonaro, has been urged both at home and abroad to toughen his response.”
A second positive result was the Glasgow Climate Pact is the first ever climate deal to explicitly plan to reduce coal, the worst fossil fuel for greenhouse gases, though, in the end, countries agreed only to "phase down" rather than "phase out" coal.
This decision made clear the difficulty of asking developing nations like India and China and many African nations to end their use of coal-fired energy plants when the development of reliable energy sources is necessary to end poverty and support the economy in those countries.
In recognition of this dilemma, the agreement also calls for wealthier nations to significantly raise funds for poorer nations to help them adapt climate measures.
The deal also presses for more urgent emission cuts, but the pledges don't go far enough to limit temperature rise to 1.5C, which prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ comment: “We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe. It is time to go into emergency mode or our chance of reaching net zero will itself be zero."
Countries have pledged to meet again next year to make further major carbon cuts in order to reach the goal of 1.5C.
The David Suzuki Foundation applauded a Canadian action taken at the conference, a pledge to end the financing of foreign fossil fuel projects in 2022.
“This is the first international political promise Canada has signed that also addresses public finance for oil and gas. Through Export Development Canada, Canada has been one of the biggest funders of fossil fuel expansion abroad, so this signals a major change. If implemented effectively, it could shift more than $15 billion a year out of government-backed fossil fuels and into clean energy worldwide,” the Foundation notes.
“Will Canadian promises at COP26 lead to needed actions?” remains a question for many Canadians, however. In spite of promises made at previous climate conferences — by different governments — Canadian emissions have continued to grow. Aggressive action is needed to meet the newly-set Canadian government target of reducing emissions by 40-45 per cent by 2030.
What does this mean for Canadians? What does this mean for the citizens of Orillia?
1. Individually, Canadians have carbon footprints that are at or near the highest in the world. If we really care about the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, we must get serious about greenhouse gas emissions and our “throwaway” lifestyles. Those of us lucky enough to live in Canada, in spite of our small population, are major contributors to the climate problem.
We must recognize that this lifestyle — our lifestyle — has to change, and fast. How we make these changes has to become part of our daily thinking about who we are and what kind of world we want to live in. A start? Buy less and keep it longer.
2. “Climate action” must be the measure by which we evaluate our governments — municipally, provincially and federally. It will take all three levels of government working together to make the changes needed by 2030 and, after that, by 2050.
Any government that refuses to make this their number one priority needs to be voted out of office. Politicians who ignore the threats to life posed by climate changes — threats vividly displayed in the devastation caused in B.C. by the recent downpour, landslides and flooding — must not receive our votes, must not be elected to lead at any level, because they won’t!
If ever there was a time for leaders to lead, it is now. Climate action must be THE priority in municipal and provincial elections coming up in 2022.
3. Canadians must urge businesses and corporations to also do their share, not only in the actions required to reduce emissions, but also in terms of their tax support of governments that set aggressive climate change targets. Companies that ignore needed actions and continue to pollute either through their industries and manufacturing or through their transportation and buildings should be boycotted until they recognize that they, too, have been part of the problem and now must be part of the solution.
Actions are needed by all of us — individual Canadians, governments at all levels, and business and industry. Together over the years, we, our parents and our grandparents have created the dangers of climate change: the increases of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere around our Earth.
Now that we understand what we’ve done, now that we are seeing the consequences that are being visited on us now and that will be visited even worse on our children in the future, it’s time to work together to make the world right again.
It won’t be easy. But it must be done. And it can be done. If we work together.
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