Submitted January 28th, 2010 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.The following is an excerpt from the People's Submission. Read the complete text here.
This submission is made on behalf of Canadian citizens who overwhelmingly desire that our government take real action on climate change. We submit that in order to contribute its fair share to a meaningful global climate change agreement, Canada should take the following actions:
1. Canada should commit to a science-based emissions reduction target of 25 per cent below 1990 levels by the year 2020 – “further strengthening” the government’s current target of 3 per cent below 1990 by 2020, as required by the Copenhagen Accord.
2. Canada should provide its fair share (3 to 4 per cent) of long-term climate financing to assist the most vulnerable and poorest countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to unavoidable climate change impacts. The Copenhagen Accord commits developed countries to “a goal of mobilizing” US $100 billion per year by 2020. Canada should go further by supporting a collective financing target of US $195 billion per year by 2020.
3. Canada should also provide its fair share (3 to 4 per cent) of short-term climate financing to assist the most vulnerable and poorest countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to unavoidable climate change impacts. This is equivalent to CAD $320 to 420 million per year in new funds, over and above our Official Development Assistance commitments, from 2010 to 2012. This financing would be a first step towards the long-term financing commitment noted above.
4. Finally, Canada should recommit itself to fulfilling its legal obligations under the Kyoto Protocol (an emissions reduction target of 6 per cent below 1990 levels during the period 2008 to 2012), and working with the international community to come to an agreement in 2010 on stronger commitments under the Protocol, post-2012.
Knocking out coal by 2010: Because action on climate change can't wait
Ontario’s Clean Air Alliance has launched its G-20 campaign to phase-out coal-fired electrical generation by June, 2010.
See details here: http://www.cleanairalliance.org/
 Ontario can now meet its electricity needs without using coal. In fact we now have a surplus of coal-free electricity generation capacity, so there is no need to wait until 2014 to end the use of coal to generate electricity. We can commit to taking our coal plants offline before this summer’s G20 Summit in Toronto to provide climate change leadership for the world.
Discussion Paper Linking National Cap-and-Trade Systems in North America By Matthew Bramley, P.J. Partington and Dave Sawyer  Linking National Cap-and-Trade Systems in North America examines the pros and cons of linking cap-and-trade systems and examines the prospects for linking in North America.
It was prepared as part of a multi-year project between the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Pembina Institute entitled Clean Energy and Climate Action: A North American Collaboration. This project is committed to the creation of an ambitious and coherent policy approach to climate change and energy issues in North America.
Member Profile Meet the BC Sustainable Energy Association
Each newsletter, this space will feature a different member organization of Climate Action Network Canada
Could British Columbia operate successfully with no fossil fuels at all, and no human activities that produce greenhouse gas emissions? We certainly believe so, because that’s our goal in The BC Sustainable Energy Association.
We launched ourselves in 2004, and have been steadily building our membership and activities since then. We’re still a small organization, and depend on a lot of volunteer energy especially in our policy work, where we are very engaged with the BC government, BC Hydro, and the BC Utilities Commission in trying to achieve practical policy changes. Our recent submission to BC’s Green Energy Advisory Task Force contained 61 detailed recommendations.
We have a very active website, four active Chapters around the province where local volunteers hold regular events and activities, and four major projects.
Our first project - the Climate Change Showdown - was created by young people in our Kamloops Chapter, and has since evolved into a board game and educational challenge that has reached 50,000 Grades 5 & 6 students around BC, with students taking the challenge home to their parents, who have achieved an average 0.8 tonnes of GHG reduction for each household that responded.
Our second project - SolarBC - aims to achieve a market transformation for solar hot water in British Columbia, which has turned out to be a lot more complicated than we thought, due to numerous barriers that we are working to overcome. With major support from both the federal and provincial governments, however, we are making good headway.
Our third project - Green Landlords - aims to achieve a similar market transformation for low-income multi-unit rental properties in British Columbia, where the lowest income people often live in the least efficient buildings. We have solved the problem on paper, and are now embarking on Phase 2, to persuade the government to implement the detailed changes that are needed to remove the split incentives and make it easy and attractive for landlords to upgrade their properties.
Our fourth project - Clean Energy Classrooms - helps young people link up with Canadian college-based training courses in sustainable energy, which appreciate the help in promoting their courses.
We also run a free monthly lunchtime Climate and Energy Solutions Webinar that is joined by some 200 people. Our next, on February 23rd, is on Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds (PACE Bonds).
It always feels as if there is too much to do - but that’s probably true for every active ENGO in CAN-Rac these days!
Guy Dauncey, President, BCSEA
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Connect with us:
Support the Ontario Clean Air Alliance's Knock out coal by 2010 campaign.Action Alert:
What you can do: Contact Energy Minister Phillips and ask him to take the necessary steps to ensure that we can phase-out our dirty coal plants by 2010.
The Honourable Gerry Phillips
Minister of Energy
Hearst Block, 900 Bay Street
Toronto M7A 2E1
Phone: 416-327-6758
Fax: 416-327-0033
Email: gphillips.mpp@liberal.ola.org
http://www.cleanairalliance.org/knockout_coal
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