Sierra Club BC welcomes the agreement between the United States and China that outlines new reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a significant step in the right direction that displays global leadership in the lead-up to the important 2015 climate summit in Paris. The U.S. and China should be applauded.
The U.S. has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025. China has agreed to cap its emissions by 2030 or earlier.
The European Union (EU) has already endorsed a binding 40 per cent (compared to 1990 levels) greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030.
Together, the U.S., China and the EU are responsible for 50 per cent of the world’s emissions.
If other countries would follow their example, we could have a real shot at a meaningful climate agreement in 2015 and begin reducing green house gas emissions in the short term. It is now up to other nations to step up and display the same kind of leadership.
Canada, in particular, needs to rethink its stance on the exploitation of fossil fuels, such as the Alberta oil sands. A recent report placed Canada dead last among industrialized countries for its performance on climate change.
While China and the U.S. lead, Canada is heading in the opposite direction and will become an international pariah if it does not respond with a real plan to reduce emissions.
In British Columbia, the provincial government’s target of reducing emissions by 33 per cent by 2020 is threatened by its frenzied push to export massive quantities of fracked gas.
Recent satellite observations in the U.S. confirm between nine and 10 per cent leakage rates of heat-trapping methane, which traps 86 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. In the short term, the climate impacts of fracked gas are greater than those of coal.
This is especially worrying given global warming may be approaching tipping points that, if passed, will result in runaway climate change.
Both in B.C. and Canada as a whole, governments must apply mandatory assessments of greenhouse gas emissions to all proposed fossil fuel projects. If the federal government refuses to do so, then B.C. must act unilaterally to impose its own climate test.
Existing studies show new pipeline projects, such as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, as well as the proposed LNG terminals would result in sky-rocketing increase in emissions and must be shelved in favour of investment in climate-friendly, renewable energy solutions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that we face “severe, widespread and irreversible impacts” if emissions are not reduced quickly.
China and the U.S. have heeded the call – it’s time for Canada to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution.
Jens Wieting is Sierra Club BC’s forest and climate campaigner.
