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Climate Action Network members meet with United Nations Climate Change Conference President, the Honourable Stéphane Dion and officials (December 2, 2005)

Get Involved
Individuals
Industry
Governments

Get Involved

Check out the Issues and Resources pages on this site for more information about climate change issues. Be sure to also read our Climate Change Primer, Climate Action Now! and A Planetary Citizen’s Guide to the Global Climate Negotiations

Our Links page lists web sites for many of the organizations that support the Climate Action Network. These sites contain a great deal of useful information about climate change, the environment and other public interest issues.

Watch the video from the CAN Canada 2005 Activist Training Workshop Learn How UN Climate Negotiations Really Work!

Individuals

Here are some suggestions on how you can reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. Every bit helps!

Transportation

If you drive a car, reducing the number of trips you make in it (especially single occupant trips) not only saves fuel costs. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Walking, bicycling, public transport, sharing a car, taxis, trains, inter-urban transit and carpooling are all alternatives that make a real difference.

In most of Canada’s larger cities, it’s often more convenient to get around on public transit. Montreal, the site of the COP 11 meetings, is an example of a city where the public transit system in the central city core often delivers people to their destinations faster than a car would.

Other suggestions

• Share the road with your colleagues, neighbours or friends. Carpooling is an efficient, simple and inexpensive way to get around. Consult the Carpool.ca web site to calculate how much you can save by carpooling. The Voyagez Futé Montréal web site (in French and English) also has suggestions for carpooling:
  
  Carpooling allows you to:
  
  
  • Share fuel and parking costs;
    
  • Extend your car's life and allow other members of your family to use it (in some cases, this may enable you to avoid purchasing a second vehicle);
    
  • Retain the same level of comfort you are used to without radically changing your habits;
    
  • Avoid traveling alone. Time goes so much faster in pleasant company!
    
  • Arrive at work more relaxed, perhaps after reading the newspaper or drinking a coffee on the way;
    
  • Be more flexible, providing you with extra options.
    
    
    
• If your situation requires the use of a car, consider sharing one, at much lower cost, in a co-operative arrangement. Vrtucar.com has a links page listing car sharing services in Canada, the United States and Europe (CAN Canada has no relationship with these companies and provides the link as a matter of information only.) If your car use is less frequent, you may also want to consider renting a vehicle as required from a car rental company.
  
  
• In cities throughout Canada, it’s also possible to rent a bicycle, if you are visiting for a few days. The Toronto Bicycling Network offers a good page of bicycle resource links
  
  
• Another alternative to the single occupant automobile is using a taxi. Taxis are a rapid means of transportation, ideal for bringing home heavy bags of groceries, after an evening on the town, or even when you are working late.
  
  
• If you continue to own and use a car on a regular basis, you may want to consider hybrid or alternative fuel models at trade-in time.
  
  
• Hybrid cars are now becoming available in greater numbers. An advantage of liquid fuel-electric hybrids in many parts of the country is that the power required to run the electric engine is produced “off the grid”. (Power for the electric engine is produced while the car is in motion. Unlike an all-electric car, you don’t plug it in to recharge the batteries and increase demand on central power sources that may produce greenhouse gases or radioactive pollutants.) To find out more about these new vehicles, consult Natural Resources Canada
  
  
• There are also vehicles that function on alternative fuels such as ethanol. Engines in these vehicles emit less greenhouse gases, than engines using regular gasoline. Natural Resources Canada has more information on this topic.
  
  
• You may also want to consult Natural Resources Canada's 2005 Fuel Consumption Guide to choose the most eco-efficient vehicle.
  
  
• Respect speed limits. The faster you drive the more fuel you consume. Driving at 120 km/hr rather than 100 km/hr increases fuel consumption by 20%.
  
  
• Avoid using a remote starter. Even in winter, you only need to wait 30 seconds before driving off.
  
  
• Remove the car top carrier when not in use. This reduces resistance and therefore fuel consumption.
  
  
• Turn off your engine when you are stopped for an extended length of time. Letting an engine idle for just ten minutes a day creates a quarter of a tonne of carbon gas emissions a year, as well as wasting approximately $70 in fuel. If every driver of a light vehicle in Canada avoided letting their engine idle for even five minutes a day, every day of the year, over 930 million litres of fuel, valued at over $640 million would be saved.
  
  
• Maintain your vehicle. Have it checked regularly, particularly to ensure that the anti-pollution system is functional and effective. Pay attention to your tire pressure. Soft tires increase fuel consumption.
  
  
• Opening the windows instead of using the air-conditioning in your car will save up to 20% in fuel and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.
  

Industry

As major contributors to Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, industries, corporations and other large organizations have an important role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are a few actions that companies and organizations can take:

Develop an action plan identifying objectives for greenhouse gas emission reductions throughout the organization. Call on employees and partners of the institution to participate as well.

• Identify programs established by governments and other organizations working to reduce greenhouse gases. Companies can participate in the Government of Canada’s One-Tonne Challenge
  
  
• Encourage employees and colleagues to leave their cars at home and use their bicycles to go to work. Install bicycle supports and showers in the workplace.
  
  
• Encourage employees and colleagues to carpool. Offer free, reserved parking spaces. Organize a contest and reward employees who carpool.
  
  
• Make sure the workplace has an appropriate recycling system and sufficient bins for plastic, glass and metal in kitchens and lunch rooms.
  
  
• Recycle soft drink cans and other materials. NRCAN has a list of links of recycling associations and industries here
  
  
• Say goodbye to styrofoam cups. Purchase cups that can be washed and re-used.
  
  
• Distribute information on greenhouse gases and climate change to employees. A number of organizations offer information on the topic and you can also contact us.
  
  
• To find out what kind of initiatives companies are taking, consult the PewCenter and the David Suzuki Foundation.

Governments

Governments have the power to act. As part of their responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of citizens, governments at all levels must do everything possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2002, the Government of Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol, thereby committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. To do so, governments in Canada have introduced various programs and plans of action. For more information about federal government programs to reduce greenhouse gases, consult:

Government of Canada Climate Change site

The One-Tonne Challenge

For the details of the Kyoto Protocol, consult the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change web site.

As well as raising public awareness about the phenomenon of climate change, governments are responsible for monitoring companies so that they also contribute to the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. See the Government of Canada Climate Change site for more information.

Governments in Canada must:

• invest in public transit and encourage alternatives to the automobile.
  
  
• invest in research and development in order to develop renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar power. To learn more about renewable energy, consult Greenpeace Canada’s web page on clean energy. Information is also available from the Canadian Renewable Energy Network, the Canadian Solar Industries Association and the Canadian Wind Energy Association
  
  
• encourage other countries to sign and ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Canada must become a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  
• continue to promote and support initiatives introduced by civil society to reduce greenhouse gases.
  
  

The impacts of climate change are still difficult to predict with any precision. Governments must invest in research in order to develop and solidify scientific knowledge on greenhouse gases and climate change.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Centre for Sustainable Community Development encourages leadership and innovation through the use of sustainable principles and practices. The Green Municipal Fund, is a $500 million program intended to help municipalities fight against climate change and improve the quality of air, water and soil.

Because greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for a very long time (up to 200 years), the climate has been affected already. While eliminating greenhouse gas emissions must be undertaken to stop the situation from worsening, governments will have no choice but to contend with the impacts of climate change. The Ouranos Consortium's web site suggests several paths which could be followed.