Province no longer afraid to address topic, says minister
Edmonton hosting three-day Cities and Climate Change Science Conference
It wasn’t that long ago Alberta and Canada used to “hide” from climate conferences, provincial Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Monday.
Now, Alberta hosts them. Phillips was speaking at a news conference at the launch of the three-day Cities and Climate Change Science Conference.
When the NDP government was elected in 2015, Alberta had a reputation as an environmental laggard, she said.
“Now, we’re leaders,” she said. Alberta is one of the only oil-producing jurisdictions in the world with a price on carbon — and the only one with a cap on emissions from its largest source of supply, Phillips said.
The province is taking steps to achieve a target of 30 per cent of Alberta’s electricity generated by renewable sources such as wind and solar.
The government also continues to phase out coal-fired pollution, a real issue for Edmonton and west of Edmonton, she said.
Albertans don’t have to choose between their environment and the economy, Phillips said.
The success of climate change policies will depend on a government’s ability to engage stakeholders in the local and provincial levels because that is where the real decisions are made, Hoesung Lee, chairman of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Monday.
“Governments address climate change in the context of national priorities — in the context of job creation, in the context of citizens’ health (and) … energy security,” he said.
So for scientists to be able to help governments, he said they need to work with local governments.
Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said at the Paris Agreement she attended in 2015, the focus was on nations, but now the focus is businesses and cities stepping up.
Mayor Don Iveson said Edmonton is lucky it has the support of provincial and federal governments when it comes to taking action to mitigate climate change.
“Even if we didn’t have alignment there is much that we can do,” he said.
“This is bottom-up action.” While cities account for about 70 per cent of carbon emissions, they also house research and innovation centres, Iveson said.
“There’s an opportunity for us to reinforce that cities will continue to lead based on the best science available,” Iveson said.
“This is important. Over time, it will require the consistent commitment of local government leaders around the world.”
Even as local leaders and scientists work on the best solutions to reduce effects of climate change, the science has a lot of naysayers. Edmonton will play host to a flat earth conference and billboards from an anti-climate change group Friends of Science have gone up near the Shaw Conference Centre.
IPCC chairman Lee said skeptics should use scientific journals rather than billboards to disseminate their message.
“Publish your findings of research in a peer-reviewed journal so that IPCC can assess objectively,” he said.