Interview with Bruce Hyer, MP for Thunder Bay - Superior North
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that climate change is real and is caused by human activity. It has also stated that reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is essential to avoiding irreversible impacts on people and the environment.
The Harper Government has committed to reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to 30 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030, but our total GHGs have increased every year since 2009. Our country also ranks 58th out of 61 countries assessed on the Climate Change Performance Index. It is fair to say that the current federal government has shown a complete lack of leadership – and even a disinterest – in addressing climate change.
What is the Green Party's plan for reducing Canada's GHGs, and how will your party ensure that we are doing our part to help mitigate and adapt to climate change?
The Green Party will take swift and concrete action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and return Canada to a global leadership role in the fight against climate change. Canada should commit to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Our long-term target should be to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with further cuts to greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80 to 90 percent compared to 1990. To accomplish these reductions, we will establish a revenue-neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend system to phase out carbon emissions and promote renewable energy. Carbon Fee and Dividend would put a clear price on carbon pollution, and every dollar generated by the carbon fee would be returned to Canadians through an equal, per-capita dividend payment.
The Conservatives and Liberals have no plan to reduce CO2 emissions, and are leaving it up to the provinces to deal with this problem. What leadership! The NDP have a highly flawed, expensive, and bureaucratic cap and trade plan. The Green Party plan will combine some regulation and investments with a national price on carbon. Our Carbon Fee and Dividend plan will reduce both CO2 emissions and poverty. It is not a tax, it requires no new bureaucracy, and it will actually put money into pockets of the majority of Canadians.
Canada can also realize significant emissions reductions by increasing the efficiency of existing housing and building stock. We will unleash an army of carpenters, electricians, and contractors (jobs!) to plug the leaks in Canada's buildings, where energy waste makes up 30 percent of our national carbon pollution.
The Green commitment to infrastructure includes huge investments in energy savings in public transit and water systems. The Green Party also supports making our fair share of global contributions to the Green Climate Fund. Our goal should be an annual commitment of $500 million each year beginning in 2016. Finally, we will cancel the $1.3 billion dollar annual subsidy to fossil fuel companies.
The Green Party believes that the federal government must show leadership in developing an adaptation strategy in collaboration with the provincial, territorial, municipal, and First Nations governments that aims to mitigate and reduce the impacts of climate change. Even with significant global GHG reductions to stabilize the climate, it will take decades, perhaps centuries, to arrest climate change.
