Bold call to action
They can’t expect to get much of a hearing from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s carbon-friendly government. But the more than 100 leading Canadian and American scientists and economists who have just called for a moratorium on new oilsands projects are trying to jolt the public awake to a stark truth.
Canada’s rapid growth in oilsands output, championed by the Conservatives, is incompatible with global efforts to cut greenhouse emissions and stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Harper may be content to kick this problem off into the long grass, but Canadians shouldn’t be. The public should heed these scientists and challenge the Conservatives to produce a plan that preserves a degree of stability in the oilpatch, but that moves us resolutely toward a lower-carbon economy. Four in five want Ottawa to show more leadership than it has.
“No new oilsands or related infrastructure projects should proceed unless consistent with an implemented plan to rapidly reduce carbon pollution, safeguard biodiversity, protect human health and respect treaty rights,” the scientists have urged in an open letter. “Controlling carbon pollution will not derail the economy.”
As co-author Marc Jaccard of Simon Fraser University put it, it’s a matter of trying “to clean up your own backyard.” Scientists from the Royal Society of Canada, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Nobel Laureate all agree. If Harper had developed a credible plan in his nine years in office, it’s unlikely that this call would have arisen. But he hasn’t.
Bending the curve won’t be easy. The oilsands directly generate $45 billion a year, 2.3 per cent of the national economy, and hundreds of thousands of jobs. And the sector is expanding. Output will grow 75 per cent by 2030. That’s what makes the oilsands so controversial and Ottawa’s temporizing so discouraging.
At the Group of Seven summit this week, Harper paid lip service to the need for “lower carbon-emitting sources of energy” as the leaders gave themselves a generous 85 years to phase out fossil fuel use. But what progress is being made in Canada is due to the efforts of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. They are putting a price on carbon to curb fuel use. Ottawa has done nothing comparable.
In fact Harper’s latest plan to cut emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by the year 2030 is a step backward from his previous, grudging commitment to pace American efforts. The new trajectory leaves us trailing our neighbour. That backsliding will earn us no credit when 200 nations gather at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris to thrash out a new plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 inwards.
Renowned scientists are telling us we can do more, without wrecking the economy. That’s something to talk about during the election campaign.