Trudeau says pipeline will fund planting
Liberals promise to use nature to combat climate change in $3-billion plan
MONTREAL— Justin Trudeau promised Friday that a re-elected Liberal government would use revenues from the Trans Mountain pipeline to pay for a $3-billion plan to use nature to combat climate change, which includes planting two billion trees over the next decade.
The promise is the latest plank in Trudeau’s plan to protect the environment, which he unveiled in pieces at campaign stops over the past week while defending his government’s controversial purchase of the pipeline.
The promise follows new research that suggests trees could play a huge role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and only a few months after the federal government stepped in to save a tree-planting program from budget cuts in Ontario.
The Liberal leader made the pledge after meeting with 16year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and before participating in a climate march in Montreal, one of several such marches across Canada Friday.
The environment has taken on a significant role in this election, with Trudeau’s chances at re-election at least partly resting on his ability to convince progressive voters that his party’s plan is better than those of the NDP and Greens.
“Nature isn’t just part of our identity as Canadians, it’s also a part of the solution to climate change and it’s a solution we can start using today,” Trudeau said as his son, Xavier, and daughter, Ella- Grace, stood nearby with supporters and local Liberal candidates.
“Trees are remarkable. They pull carbon out of the atmosphere. They are renewable and they’re sustainable and, eventually, they even recycle themselves. All we have to do is plant the first one.”
While Trudeau did not lay out specific details, including exactly how much the tree-planting promise would cost, the Liberals say the promised trees are in addition to the roughly 600 million that are already planted across Canada each year.
That includes trees being planted through an Ontario program that the federal Liberal government saved when its funding was cut by Premier Doug Ford’s government in April. The Liberals promised $15 million over four years to keep it going.
The role of trees in fighting climate change has been generally understood for some time. But a landmark study by Swiss researchers in June suggested planting trees could be the most effective and cost-efficient way to fight climate change because of their ability to capture and store carbon dioxide, particularly when they are young and growing.
The study, published in the journal Science, also found there is enough space worldwide to plant one trillion trees without affecting existing cities or farmland, and listed Canada among six nations with the space to handle a large share of such efforts.