It’s time to stop waiting for others to act
Citizens can reduce carbon footprints, prod government, Damon Matthews and Catherine Potvin say.
On the morning of Nov. 7, a coalition of prominent artists and scientists from across Quebec launched the Pact for the Transition. It is a call for all of us who are concerned about the climate crisis to commit to individual climate action. In signing this pact, we are committing to examine our lifestyles and choices, and take steps as best we can to decrease our carbon footprints. In the first week following its launch, more than 180,000 people signed. We are aiming for one million signatories so that the message of urgency cannot be ignored by our political leaders. In parallel, on Saturday, 50,000 people marched through the streets of downtown Montreal to demand climate leadership from our new provincial government. We know that global warming is a serious threat. The stark warning from the recent IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees C is only the latest reminder of what is already known: at the current pace of warming, we could pass the 1.5 degree C threshold in less than 15 years. This time, however, the message from the world’s leading climate scientists was one of both alarm and hope. There are real dangers that are beginning and will continue to manifest as a result of global warming, but there is also still a path open that we can choose to take to avoid the worst of these potential consequences. Now is the time to choose. We cannot wait any longer for the faltering and tentative actions of our political leaders to become bold and ambitious. We need to lead the way and trust that our political leaders will follow. Last year, as part of a group of more than 70 scholars from across Canada, we published a report on the options and pathways to a low-carbon energy transition in Canada. The mandate we were given by Natural Resources Canada was to examine how Canada could transition to low carbon without jeopardizing its international economic competitiveness. A key conclusion of our report is that the low-carbon energy transition rests on three pillars: increasing energy efficiency; electrifying with low-carbon electricity; and replacing high-carbon fuels with low-carbon alternatives. Those who are proactive in leading this transition will be better positioned to benefit from the emerging low-carbon economy. With Quebec’s existing hydro-electricity infrastructure, we are entering this transition with an immense competitive advantage. We therefore call on the new provincial government, but also the federal and municipal governments, to provide a vision of economic development that leverages this and other competitive advantages to lead us rapidly toward a low-carbon future. This is what the Pact for the Transition is asking of our political leaders: a low-carbon vision for the future of Quebec and Canada. At the same time, we are committing to decarbonize our own individual lifestyles as much as is currently possible. Individual climate action begins by acknowledging that something needs to change. It is time to stop waiting for others to act, and start this change in our own lives. It is time to put aside feelings of guilt and helplessness: there are tangible and effective actions that everyone can do to start moving toward a world that will be better for everyone. We invite you to join us, sign the pact and distribute it within your community. We hope that this call for climate action emerging from Quebec’s artistic leaders will rally people across linguistic, racial and political divides. Help us to build together the momentum that will empower our governments to engage boldly on the path to prosperity in the coming low-carbon future.
Damon Matthews is Concordia University Research Chair in Climate Science and Sustainability, and a professor of Geography at Concordia University. Catherine Potvin is Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forests, and a professor of Biology at McGill University.