February 11th the Federal Government came out with its annual budget. It establishes the financial spending plan for the government in all areas of Federal Government activity – the military, income support programs, environment, First Nations, inspection and regulation, and so on. It establishes the economic priorities including continued strong subsidies to oil and gas companies while renewable energy programs languish. What it does not do, is establish our carbon budget and how we plan to meet it. (Huffington Post 2014 02 07)
Canada needs a
carbon budget if we are to keep global warming to a maximum of two degrees
Celsius (as all world leaders including Mr. Harper have agreed to do.).
According to the film made by 350.org called “Do the Math”, the problem is simple. They told
us we have five times more existing reserves of fossil fuels than we can afford
to burn. The recent report from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate
Change) has radically reduced that budget. It suggests we only have a
66% chance of holding climate warming to 2 degrees C if we can hold future
emissions to 270 gigatonnes — everything more than that risks frequent,
intense and disastrous weather events.
Burning the
fossil fuel that corporations now have in their reserves would result in the
emission of 2,795 gigatonnes of carbon – almost ten times the safe
amount. Fossil fuel companies are planning to burn it all — unless we
rise up to stop them. Millions of lives and perhaps civilization
itself may be at stake.
Every country in the world needs to be developing the capacity to closely track its carbon usage, and to take corrective action when we are exceeding our limits. What we count is what we value. We must count our greenhouse gas emissions and systematically reduce them.
In November, during the UN
Climate talks, Germanwatch released the Climate Change Performance Index. Canada and Australia are the
worst performers of all industrialised countries. Warsaw.
(18. Nov. 2013) "The new edition of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)
was released by Germanwatch and CAN Europe in Warsaw at the UN climate talks
today. The results show emissions worldwide have climbed to a new peak and no single
country is yet on track to prevent dangerous climate change."
The
world must come to negotiated agreements as to what is fair carbon usage for
each country and how the negotiated standards will be enforced. We would
like to see Canada leading the world towards a transition to a renewable energy
economy. Instead, we are being dragged kicking and screaming to the
table. We need an attitude change before COP20 (United Nations Climate
Conference) in November.
Instead,
we continue to make oil and gas the foundation of our economy while other
countries move ahead into the Fourth Revolution – The Energy Revolution toward
renewable energy.
Are
you fasting with us on Climate First on the First of the Month? Will you
take action this month? Write a politician in your area asking them what
the carbon budget is for your city, province, or for Canada. Or write a
letter to the paper pointing out the need for a carbon budget. And don't forget to let us know if you are participating at ClimateFast. Also, see our action page at CUSJ (Canadian Unitarians For Social Justice)
