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Are we going to live up to our Paris commitments and act decisively to stop climate change? If the recent meeting of environment ministers is any indication, it depends on whom you ask.
Federal minister Catherine McKenna clearly understands that urgency and opportunity have converged to create a potent moment for reducing carbon emissions, while her Nova Scotia counterpart Margaret Miller carries a less encouraging message. Actually two: 1. We are doing enough already. 2. We can’t afford strong emissions targets. With due respect to minister Miller, who is new, in 2016 it is messages like these that we can’t afford.
It’s time we owned the truth about climate change.
Truth number one: Old rules don’t apply. We have a tried-and-true method of solving shared problems. We gather around a table, share perspectives and find a compromise. While this works with most issues, climate change is different. It is physics—and physics doesn’t compromise. Either we use the science to make the necessary emissions reductions or we dance around it and reap the consequences.
Truth number two: There’s a new bottom line. We already have the tools. One of them, carbon pricing, may well be the key to a sustainable future. It works within a market economy, using a rising price on high-carbon energy sources to replace them with low-carbon alternatives. And, contrary to what you’ve heard, it’s not just another tax. Carbon pricing can generate revenues to reduce existing taxes, help local businesses transition, support the less well off and fuel creation of new technologies, industries and jobs.
There will be challenges aplenty—progress comes with costs. But here’s the bottom line: The value of a livable climate is far greater than the cost of achieving it. Minister McKenna and our federal government get this and will introduce a Canada-wide carbon price this fall.
Sadly, our provincial government resists joining them. Minister Miller and her colleagues still see environment and economy as adversaries. Their thinking, like the economy they seek to protect, reflects a past that is long gone. In its place a sustainable future, both economically and environmentally, is taking shape. Visionary thinking and smart carbon pricing can help Nova Scotia thrive in it.
Truth number three: It’s for our children. There is a deeper reason to act. Whether we’re parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or neighbours, we love our children. We show it in 1,000 ways—providing sunscreen in summer and warm coats in winter, helping with homework and cheering achievements, offering guidance and readying for adulthood. It’s what grown-ups do.
Some acts of love require joining together in common cause. Our forebears stood up against aggressors abroad, wove an inclusive social safety net and gave us the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Now it’s our turn. We can give our children something even more precious: A stable, nurturing climate.
Truth number four: We can do it. As beneficiaries of modern life we’ve helped create this massive challenge. Putting things right will require the best in us—the Canada that seeks to model peace and justice in the world and the Nova Scotia that cherishes its natural heritage. It won’t be easy. But if we own the truth, demand more from our leaders and remember whose future we hold in our hands, we can succeed. Let’s get going. It’s time.
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This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2016.
This is a compelling commentary. I especially like the lines: “The value of a livable climate is far greater than the cost of achieving it.” and “It’s for our children…. Now it’s our turn. We can give our children something even more precious: A stable, nurturing climate.” That’s what motivates me on this issue. Canada must get its act together on climate change. And NS needs to build on its successes to date with a phased in carbon price coordinated with national pricing. Brian
While I also desperately wish to act sooner and faster with regards to climate change, I can respect the argument I’ve heard that of all Canadians, Nova Scotians pay some of the highest prices for energy (read, oil, gas, and coal) already. Adding a carbon tax to them/us could be financially debilitating to many of the residence.
Should the average Nova Scotian have to suffer because the provincial government hasn’t implemented clean(er) energy in the province? I don’t have the choice (in Pictou County) to not use coal as the local NS Power facility still burns it.
Just some thoughts.
“Love deeply, yes, but, also, love broadly.”
Sure, Liam, Nova Scotians pay among the highest prices in Canada for electricity. But we pay low prices by global standards. To compare: Nova Scotia’s average hourly electricity rate right now is 14.8 cents per kilowatt hour. (It varies between 14-16, generally).
In Germany, the rate per kilowatt hour is about 30 cents per kw/h. In Britain it’s 19. In France it’s 17. In the U.S. it ranges from 12 cents per kilowatt hour in Seattle to more than 30 cents in Boston (and in most cities it’s in the higher range.) In Japan it’s 26 cents. In Australia it’s 29 cents. In Spain it’s 30 cents.
Compared to other parts of the developed world, electricity is dirt cheap in Nova Scotia. (And those latter prices I cited are all American, so add about 30 percent, in fact).