IPCC report shows no time for Liberal government to delay on climate action

NDP Critic for the Environment and Climate Change, Laurel Collins, made the following statement:

“Today’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was clear: we must act immediately to reduce our use of fossil fuels and make large-scale efforts to reduce emissions across the country.

Just as many Canadians have suspected, the IPCC highlighted that one of the biggest barriers to implementing a large-scale response to climate change is political will. The technology exists, but the funding and implementation is needed.

People are already living with the impacts of the climate emergency; the status quo is not working. Today’s report identified that even if all policies to cut carbon that were in place by the end of 2022, the world will still warm by 3.2 degrees this century. Bolder action is urgently needed.

Any pathway to limit warming to 1.5 degrees must include a rapid and deep GHG emissions reduction, and without immediate action to do so, the IPCC has warned that hitting that target will be impossible.

For 7 years, Canadians have watched in frustration while the Liberals take Canada in the wrong direction.

Their new emissions plan is heavily dependent on massive subsidies to big oil and implementing carbon capture technology – a strategy that has been denounced by scientists as it mostly benefits big oil companies.

Instead of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, they increased them – handing out billions to profitable oil and gas companies.

Instead of capping oil and gas emissions, the Liberals announced a few days ago that they will increase production by 300,000 barrels a day.

Instead of helping communities and workers meet the challenges created by the climate crisis, they spent billions on a pipeline.

Climate delay won’t cut it, we must act now.

The NDP will be using its power to work toward stronger climate action so that we can all rise to the challenge we are facing. We will keep pushing the government to increase their commitments on the Just Transition Act, the Clean Job Centre, the Future Fund and ecoEnergy retrofit for low-income households. We'll also continue to fight to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies - which could reduce emissions by as much as 10% by 2030.

The upcoming budget will be an important opportunity for the government to show that it takes the climate emergency seriously.”