Rosa Gálvez asks the Senate to declare a climate emergency

Based on a 2019 House of Commons statement, independent Senator Rosa Gálvez wants the upper house to declare a national climate emergency.

The former environmental engineer and current University of Laval professor doesn’t expect to move or speak on the motion until next week, but if it is adopted, the Senate would join more than 500 other Canadian provincial, territorial and municipal governments in the symbolic gesture. .

“All regions of the country are affected by climate change, and in particular British Columbia, which is suffering a catastrophic year of extremes, from wildfires and record heat waves to current floods and landslides,” said Gálvez in a statement.

“The Senate should show solidarity with Canadians by recognizing the climate emergency. Although this motion is symbolic, I hope it will be the first of many climate actions that the Senate will undertake in the 44th Parliament, ”he added.

The text of the motion recognizes climate change as an “urgent” crisis that requires an “immediate and ambitious response.” It also recognizes that human activity is driving the crisis and that failure to address climate change will harm the health and safety of Canadians and the country’s fiscal stability. It also says there will be “catastrophic consequences”, particularly for indigenous peoples, youth and future generations, if the crisis is not addressed.

As such, the statement would urge Canada to uphold its international commitments under the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep warming as close to 1.5 ° C as possible, and pressure the Senate to specifically consider the urgency of the climate crisis while doing your job.

The House of Commons adopted a similar statement in 2019, presented by then-climate minister Catherine McKenna before approving the Trans Mountain expansion project the next day.

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Canada’s Paris target, called Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), aims to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The target is essentially in line with the global average, based on the 1.5 C report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which determined that to achieve the Paris target, global greenhouse gas emissions must fall. 45% below 2010 levels by 2030. Climate promotion groups have said Canada’s fair share is closer to 60 percent reduction from 2005 levels to 2030 due to the country’s enormous role in fueling the climate crisis.

Progress in meeting the 2030 target is lagging. The most recent emissions data available shows that Canada has only achieved a reduction of around one percent, due in large part to cleaner electricity generation replacing coal plants that went offline. But emissions have been on the rise since the Paris Agreement was signed, and increased fossil fuel production wiped out progress made in other corners of the economy.

A recent study by the Trottier Energy Institute found that, according to several different forecasts, Canada will not reach its 2030 target without controlling for fossil fuel production. The report called oil and gas production the “only possible lever” if Canada is to meet its Paris target because, with less than 10 years to go, there simply isn’t enough time to replace gas-guzzling cars. and buildings that consume little energy. , or decarbonizing sectors that are difficult to abate.

In other words, 1.5 C will be out of reach unless you act on expensive items like oil and gas production.

TO study published in Nature this week when examining countries’ NDCs, it was calculated that even under the most optimistic scenarios, the promised actions are not enough to keep warming below 2 C, let alone the 1.5 C target. In almost all the scenarios considered, the study found that warming would remain between 2 C and 3 C by the end of the century.

John Woodside / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer