Climate change effects every…

Climate change effects every area of our lives - our homes, work, health and family, the food we eat, the nature around us, those we share this world with (especially those most vulnerable), our ability to feel safe and hopeful, and the prospects for our children. It also effects the broader economy and environment. Given these extensive, wide-ranging impacts, climate change should be a central consideration in all government decision-making, spending and regulating.

On top of its all-encompassing effects, climate change will not wait for us as we drag our heels and catch up. We are on a science-dictated clock. Recent reports indicate, for example, that we have 10-20 years to get off of fossil fuels and it is often cited that 2020 is an important year to ensure a steep downward trajectory in emissions in all sectors. As the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report clearly shows, there is an urgent need to act on ambitious climate plans now, or the short term impacts will be more severe and the long term impacts devastating. We cannot move backwards and instead need to accelerate actions and set more ambitious goals.

On a personal note, this past summer, my relatives in Northern Ontario were close enough to the fires that we had to check to make sure it was safe to visit them. In Southern Ontario, where I grew up, we can no longer walk safely in the family woodlot, as there are so many disease-ridden tics. My mother had to be treated for Lyme disease this year. At home, my husband and I have contended with leaks in rain storms, an infestation of destructive carpet beetles and swarms of elder tree bugs, which experts say is due to our rapidly changing climate. Climate change impacts are not distant, they are hitting close to home. Even so, in Canada, we are incredibly lucky compared to some of the already apocalyptic effects people are experiencing worldwide. At this point in history, policies and plans must prioritize health, wellbeing and continued survival. We have the chance, if we act now, to head off some of the Increasingly risky and expensive effects of climate change.

Ontario’s climate plan needs to keep up with current climate and environmental science (reference the new IPCC report), to include concrete, actionable and measurable goals and targets. These targets need to be consistent with Ontario doing its part to achieve the Paris climate agreement to keep warming below 1.5°C. Progress needs to be regularly accounted for and action steps re-adjusted as needed. We also need effective policy to achieve emissions reductions, and a source of funding for climate action that spans sectors - transportation, buildings, energy, land use, materials, waste management. A primary way this funding can and should be provided is by making those who pollute pay and using the money generated to put into programs to reach climate goals.

Climate change really is a non-partisan issue. Acting on it is in everyone’s best interest. We need climate law that commits our leaders to short and long-term action, including science-dictated, legally-binding emissions targets. We need non-partisan, expert climate plan advisors, independent progress evaluations and every single political leader to come together to work toward climate goals and take climate leadership.

With these facts in mind, I’m concerned that Ontario’s climate plan includes, among other necessary climate action, the following considerations:

1)The need for Ontario to be 100% powered by renewable energy on a science-dictated timeline. We need to expand renewables, including hydropower, wind, solar and storage. Reconsidering the cancellation of renewable energy contracts would help fulfill this need. Further growth of green industry can vitalize the economy and help the environment.

There is a need to invest in, incentivize and enable renewable energy projects (and clean tech & supporting infrastructure) and no longer approve or enable fossil fuel projects. We subsidize and have subsidized old forms of energy for so long that there is currently an unfair playing field that discourages more forward-thinking, greener forms of energy. Even so, wind and solar are increasingly cheaper and more efficient forms of energy generation. Wind can now be generated at a competitive cost and purchasing hydro-electricity from Quebec is also a good, cost-effective source of energy.

In fact, a least-cost pathway to meeting meaningful emissions reduction targets includes increasing clean electricity supply and promoting energy efficiency and conservation. Taking advantage of this least-cost pathway means deploying more clean energy and storage then our current long-term energy plan dictates. It also means enacting enabling policy that allows citizens, businesses and organizations to retrofit buildings, conserve energy and participate in small scale, community-based clean energy production. Doing so will have economic and job benefits.

I’ve seen the positive affect renewables can have in both rural and city settings. I grew up on a farm, next to a greenhouse powered by a wind turbine. When the GTA experienced one of its most severe blackouts a number of years ago, I didn’t even know about it, as the turbine fed the grid for the whole countryside! In my hometown, the farmers and small businesses are benefiting from and proud to be on the leading edge with solar panels in the fields and rows of wind turbines on the horizon.

As part of this shift to green energy, the need to convert to non-fossil fuel sources of heating and cooling on a timeline dictated by effective climate goals is critical (ex. geothermal, district heating, solar panels, electric water and space heaters). All new builds need to be zero emissions and fossil free. Existing buildings need to be retrofitted to reduce GHG emissions as needed to meet climate goals. Ontario’s climate plan could help by introducing and mandating effective green building standards and regulations, making the building code stronger for GHG reduction and increasing reporting for building energy use.

Renewables have the near and long term potential to provide substantial economic and job gains while at the same time helping the climate, saving tax payers money and ensuring that our economy is resilient, prosperous and sustainable.

2)The need for adequate funding to implement climate plans with the speed necessary to meet science-dictated goals and targets. This includes putting an effective and escalating price on carbon.

Putting an effective price on carbon is a necessary step in our efforts to avoid runaway global warming. The best carbon pricing options include “cap and trade” or “fee and dividend” programs. In both cases, the money earned could be given back to the people so that it is not a “tax grab.” The money already collected from the “cap and trade” program and any further carbon pricing revenue should be used to further actions to reduce Greenhouse Gases, like electric car incentives and investment in renewables.

Ontario’s climate plan needs an effective carbon pricing system that:
-reflects the real social cost of carbon, which I’ve read is actually as much as $275/ton of CO2
-adheres to the polluter’s pay principal: makes polluters pay for their emissions and returns the money to Ontarians so that they can take action to reduce GHGs
-steadily increases as necessary for the economy to decarbonize on a climate-dictated timeline
-speeds the shift away from a growth-based economy and from polluting industry
-includes revenues used accountably, to measurably reduce GHGs
-and/or uses revenues to increase the public good (ex. fund renewables, help vulnerable households and fossil fuel workers transition)

One big caution is that any offsets used in a carbon-accounting system should not forestall or impede momentum to a low-carbon economy. They should also be assessed by the best available science, as to their real impact on emissions reduction.

Another source for funding could come from eliminating subsidies for polluting industries (fossil fuel subsidies etc.) and redirecting them to clean industry, renewables and programs for climate action. Complying with federal climate plans and thus, unlocking the funding they would provide, is also advisable.

3)In making Ontario’s climate plan, the substantial cost of inaction as well as the costs and benefits of green industry and climate action should be considered. For example, it is a blow to the economy to cancel renewable projects and de-incentivize electric vehicles. It sends a message to green industry that we are not “open for business” and discourages the jobs and investments that will ensure our economy remains prosperous, resilient and sustainable. Instead, Ontario could benefit from pursuing a forward-thinking economy, moving away from fossil fuels and investing in renewables and clean technology.

There are so many co-benefits to shifting to renewables - jobs, poverty-reduction, economic resilience, more vibrant, healthier communities! Taking action to reduce greenhouse gases can actually generate significant returns - money, jobs and the prevention of human health repercussions.

According to Clean Energy Canada, actions to improve energy efficiency alone, could result in 118,000 jobs and save $1.4 billion annually. Another statistic, cited in the Environmental Commissioner’s report, shows that energy efficiency programs as determined by the Pan-Canadian Framework, could result in a net gain of 52,099 jobs and $12.5 billion in GDP growth by 2030. Given gains like these, it makes no sense to cut incentive programs, like rebates for Ontarians to upgrade furnaces and install better insulation, that help curb Greenhouse Gas emissions, save us money and provide jobs for local contractors.

Ontario is already a leader in clean technology, which provides billions annually and employs over a hundred thousand people. Further growth of this sector can vitalize the economy, create jobs and help the environment. 

On the flip-side, the costs of inaction are high and rising. They include health impacts of air pollution, lack of work productivity, damages from storms, biodiversity loss, food shortages, insect born diseases, drought, heat deaths. A look at the IPCC report shows that even an incremental increase in global temperatures over 1.5°C brings significantly more catastrophic results. And it shows that an ambitious climate plan can keep global temperatures below the 1.5°C target.

Costs that directly effected Ontarians so far this year include damage from extreme weather events and fires. Extreme weather events cost us in the millions and fire management, according to the commissioner’s report, about $1 billion. Acting to move us quickly away from fossil fuels and to a low-carbon Canada is really the only reasonable option!

4)Ontario’s climate plan also needs to ensure that the transition to a decarbonized economy is a just one. This can be done, in part, by implementing point 2), using the polluter pays principal and an effective carbon pricing system, redirecting funds and maximizing the social benefits that accompany the clean energy transition, ex. social equity, poverty reduction, local sustainable jobs, energy independence (community centred clean energy systems like micro-grids). Further factors include basing plans for economic resilience and job growth on a rapidly decarbonizing economy and working democratically with First Nations, organizations, unions, coops, municipalities, businesses etc., to make the shift to 100% renewables.

5)Ontario’s climate plan needs to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels in the transportation sector on a science-dictated timeline. It is important to improve transit (ex. high-speed rail, light, electric transit system powered with sustainable energy), focus on walkable, complete, compact neighbourhoods and incentivize and speed the shift to electrification of vehicles. Ample charging conduits, low carbon performance standards and traffic reduction are examples of helpful strategies. For trucks and freight, lanes for clean-fuelled or electric trucks, fuel efficiency and a shift away from subsidies for natural gas trucks could be among strategies. We need a science-based goal for phasing out fossil fuel vehicles and the policy tools to get us there!

6)Measures to increase and preserve Green space are also key for Ontario’s climate plans. Mandating and incentivizing green roofs is one way to increase Ontario’s green space.

Scientists warn that we need to protect habitat, preserve existing forests, grasslands, wetlands and water bodies in order to avoid a catastrophic loss of biodiversity. Much depends on conservation - our food and water supplies, the survival of species all the way up the food chain to humans themselves. Further, we need to move from deforestation to reforestation, afforestation and increase carbon sinks.

Although minimizing the need to drawdown carbon in the future is advisable, Canada’s future GHG reductions may depend on drawing down carbon in this and other ways. Our climate plan should address and enable the preservation of our green spaces.