The introduction of Bill 4,…

The introduction of Bill 4, which repealed the Cap and Trade system in Ontario is a very poor choice! As Canada’s largest province, we have a duty to ensure that we do our utmost diligence to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and ensure that Canada is on track to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement - reductions of roughly 200 Megatonnes of Carbon to bring its total carbon emissions to 517 Megatonnes of Carbon by 2030 (Paris Agreement, 2015)

As a developed nation that has historically been a strong environmental leader, Canada has a duty to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement - the goal of which is to limit global mean warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, as numerous scientific studies have shown that there is a great risk of catastrophic climate changes (some of which we are already beginning to see!) with even 2 degrees of warming! These include the irreversible loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet (Lenton et al, 2008), with its inevitable contribution to sea level rise, the loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic (Lenton, 2012), and consequences for Arctic marine ecosystems, and the catastrophic loss of coral reefs (and impacts to fisheries and small island nations! (Frieler et al, 2013).

I urge you to reverse the decision to pull out of Ontario’s Cap and Trade system, and reinstate the program, as Ontario should be a climate leader in the country, not a climate laggard!

References:

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-ch…

Frieler K, Meinhausen M, Golly A, Mengel M, Lebek K, Donner SD, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2013) Limiting global warming to 2°C is unlikely to save most coral reefs. Nat Clim Chang 3:165–170

Lenton, T. (2012), Arctic climate tipping points, Ambio, 41, 10–22.

Lenton, Timothy & Held, Hermann & Kriegler, Elmar & Hall, Jim & Lucht, Wolfgang & Rahmstorf, Stefan & Schellnhuber, Hans. (2008). Tipping Elements in the Earth's Climate System. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105. 1786-93. 10.1073/pnas.0705414105.