Coalition says federal budget needs to reflect costs of climate change

Almost two dozen Canadian environment groups are urging the federal Liberal government to make sure its next budget acknowledges that climate change is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

“These costs are actually really big and if we are ignoring them there is a big hole in the budget,” said Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer and project lead for the climate change program at West Coast Environmental Law.

The organization is one of 22 environment advocacy organizations in the Green Budget Coalition, which released its annual list of asks for the federal budget Wednesday.

The 72-page green budget document says Canada has to step up climate action with actual dollars.

“Climate change is a massive issue and we need to scale up action on the climate emergency,” said coalition manager Andrew Van Iterson.

Hundreds of scientists say the world has to cut global greenhouse gas emissions almost in half by 2030, and to net zero by 2050, to prevent the world from getting so warm there will be no way to stop the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Net zero means all emissions produced are absorbed by natural sinks like forests, or technology like carbon capture and storage.

The green budget suggests investing in energy efficiency upgrades, including $200 million over three years to train workers how to build energy-efficient homes and buildings, $200 million over five years to install fuel-saving devices on heavy trucks, and $85 million in 2020 alone to help cities buy zero-emission buses.

They also want a massive increase in how much Canada is contributing to global climate finance efforts. In 2015, Canada committed $2.65 billion over five years to the effort. The green budget says Canada needs to scale that up to $2.9 billion a year. The groups say that would be a share of the global pool of climate financing equal to Canada’s share of global emissions. The Canadian Press