Last week, for the first…

Last week, for the first time ever, the International Energy Agency, the world’s leading energy authority, declared that we must halt all new gas, oil and coal projects to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We must reduce the demand for gas by 55% to hit the global climate goal. This should come as no surprise to governments who are willfully ignoring the science: the pollution, heat waves, droughts, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and ocean dead zones.

The road to hitting that goal is narrow but still achievable, according to the IEA report. But it’s going to take a lot of work. In 2021, the world needs to pivot from getting 80 per cent of its total energy supply from fossil fuels. That means there needs to be no new investment or expansion in natural gas, oil or coal by the end of 2021, and companies need to focus on how to reduce emissions from their existing projects.

The Ontario government is not keeping pace with that urgency. The proposal to repeal provisions in the Electricity Act and the Ontario Energy Board Act that promotes and prioritizes renewable energy is both financially and environmentally extremely risky. It totally ignores the IEA’s report predicting a booming economic future for renewable energies with annual investments of more than $4 trillion. This will include, according the report, the creation of 14 million new clean energy jobs over the next nine years.

I ask that you urge the provincial government to reconsider its proposal to eliminate provisions to prioritize renewable energy. For the sake of all Ontarians, it is crucial that this province understand that this is an existential threat to our way of life and the life of our children.