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Mar 3 Peoples Climate Assembly: Jobs, Justice, Climate Action!
Tue, 2016-02-23 19:18
#1
Mar 3 Peoples Climate Assembly: Jobs, Justice, Climate Action!
Tue, 2016-02-23 19:22
#2
Vancouver Convention Centre West Building - 1038 Canada Place
Peoples Climate Assembly: Jobs, Justice, Climate Action!.
Prime Minister Trudeau will meet with provincial leaders and first ministers in Vancouver on March 3rd to develop a National Climate Strategy.
Trudeau urged us to "take an active part in" ensuring the success of the Paris Climate Agreement. And we will, by speaking out for a bold Climate Strategy that creates more good jobs, protects the air, land and water, and tackles the climate crisis head on. By keeping fossil fuels in the ground and rapidly shifting to renewable energy, we can create an economy that is fairer and generates hundreds of thousands of good jobs.
We need a Climate Strategy that honours Indigenous Peoples’ rights and recognizes their leadership in protecting the land, water and climate. We need a Climate Strategy that re-allocates public resources from polluting freeway expansions to public transit powered by renewable electricity. We need a Climate Strategy formed by listening to the ideas of ordinary people.
Do your part! Bring your ideas! Bring a sign saying what your Climate Strategy includes!
Tue, 2016-02-23 19:53
#3
Premiers want all national aboriginal groups at first ministers’ talks: Selinger
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure from the premiers to ensure that the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the Native Women’s Association of Canada are included in discussions next week ahead of the first ministers’ meeting in Vancouver.
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the premiers had a brief discussion and believe all five national aboriginal organizations should attend.
Selinger’s comments come after the two excluded groups sent a strongly worded letter of complaint to the premiers.
“We’ve had that tradition in the past when they meet with the Council of the Federation,” Selinger said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We meet with all five organizations and we’re supportive of continuing that practice.”
The premiers don’t see any reason why the groups cannot attend, Selinger added....
Tue, 2016-02-23 19:56
#4
The same sellouts who never properly consult with their constituents are being invited to nod their heads and shake more hands with a collection of corrupted government officials.
The Hereditary People, Traditionalists, and Off Reserve Indigenous Peoples who have a legitimate voice are being shut out of this fiasco.
The Delgamuukw Supreme Court decision is being attacked.
Fri, 2016-02-26 09:41
#5
Over 50 groups urge Trudeau to make clearer climate policy ahead of federal-provincial meetings
A coalition of 55 environmental and social justice groups have set out in a letter the policy changes Canada needs to make in order to live up to its Paris climate change commitments.
Representing hundreds of thousands of Canadians, the organizations sent their policy recommendations to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all the provincial and territorial leaders on Thursday.
“This is a defining moment for your government - and indeed for our country,” reads the letter in part. “You have a tremendous opportunity to set Canada on the path to a safer climate future.”
As the Liberal government prepares for intergovernmental meetings on climate policy in early March and Trudeau prepares to meet U.S. President Barack Obama - also in March - for a state dinner on energy and climate, pressure has intensified on the federal government to iron out its policies around climate change.
The letter calls for a new science-based emission reduction target consistent with a 1.5 degree temperature rise; and a clear and measurable plan for a transition to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.
As well, the groups want to see an end to fossil fuel industry subsidies and increased investment in a green economy; as well as a carbon price established at $30 a tonne and increased over time, among other things.
“This is a defining moment for the Trudeau government,” said Lyn Adamson, co-chair of Climate Fast. “They have a tremendous opportunity to set Canada on the path to a safe, prosperous and sustainable energy future....
Fri, 2016-02-26 10:15
#6
and increased investment in a green economy; as well as a carbon price established at $30 a tonne and increased over time...
...just for the record...and to promote dialogue!
whatever happened to system change not climate change?
So more funds for the central government to what subsidize more CCC support for the armaments industry? to finance our fiscal stimulus plans for the wealthy elites and their wars? maybe to set up a slush fund to bail out the banks now imploding?
...increased investment in the green economy? what about our faith and loyalty to capitalism as the engine of progress and development?
Who are these groups? System change! Decentralization! End to capitalism as the engine of the destruction of the planet as we teeter to global nuclear war!
Fri, 2016-02-26 10:48
#7
The letter is good. Perhaps also putting binding targets into law as was attempted with the Green Change Accountability Act, would be a good thing. Anyway, hopefully Trudeau's Libs will give an actual response to the letter rather than the vague double-talk bafflegab they lately seem to always spew.
Fri, 2016-02-26 13:54
#8
..i agree. good letter.
Liberals’ new ‘climate test’ has a loophole big enough to fit a pipeline through
quote:
The government has stated that it will consider the “upstream” and “direct” emissions of pipelines and export the responsibility for the bulk of tar sands emissions onto other nations. This kind of selective math reflects a problem at the heart of developing ambitious climate policy in Canada and around the globe. It ignores the massive shift away from thinking about climate change as a challenge to keep emissions out of the sky and towards the imperative to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This opens the door to massive loopholes, allowing governments to pick and choose what they do and don’t want to be responsible for when it comes to climate change.
Knowing the onslaught of plans to expand the fossil fuel industry in Canada, our job is to shift the political window. If serious about becoming a climate leader, the Trudeau government needs to understand that Canada has a share of the global carbon budget that it must work within. From that baseline, we can build out climate plans, pipeline reviews and economic strategies for the 21st century.
To move this window, we need to understand how the government plans to make these decisions. During the pipeline review announcement, Minister Carr explained his role as “compromiser-in-chief” as finding the middle ground between what he described as the 20 per cent of people who want to build everything and the 20 per cent of people who want to stop everything. In other words, this government wants to create a spectrum with the fossil fuel industry on one end and pipeline opponents on the other so that it can find the mushy middle.
We need to exploit the metaphorical exhaust port in the government’s approach, the fact that neither pipeline opponents, nor the climate movement as a whole, are entirely made up of “environmentalists.” Instead it is a rich tapestry of Indigenous peoples, municipalities, community groups, landowners, climate activists, young people, students and many others. Diverse coalitions of unlikely allies have defined successful fossil fuel opposition, and now we need to lean into that space and move beyond environmentalism.
Thu, 2016-03-03 15:10
#9
Union Leader Urges Trudeau to Create 'One Million Climate Jobs'
A serious debate over the energy jobs of the future is underway at a sustainability business conference in Vancouver, with national unions urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to create "1 million climate jobs" in new industries that reduce greenhouse gases.
Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff said Ottawa needs not only greenhouse gas targets, but also jobs targets that focus on getting workers the re-training and financial supports they need to transition to a clean energy economy.
quote:
"It's simply unacceptable to say to workers, 'You lose your job, the government has no role,'" said Yussuff, whose national umbrella organization represents 3.3 million workers in dozens of industries.
The labour leader is lobbying the prime minister for a so-called "just transition" -- the idea that workers shouldn't bear the brunt of major economic changes, including planned moves to curb Canada's industrial carbon footprint to meet climate goals made in Paris.
He said the government could train workers for "climate jobs" for emerging green industries, such as renewable energy, transit and high-speed rail, and suggested that all government buildings be built to high-energy efficiency standards, to encourage private industry to follow.
quote:
"We had an oil worker, Ken Smith, who came to Paris climate conference, and he spoke very passionately, 'Show me a path, and I will follow it. Because I am not stupid. I get it,'" Yussuff said. Workers want training for clean energy and better unemployment insurance -- not just pink slips, he added....
Thu, 2016-03-03 15:17
#10
Trudeau says pipelines will pay for Canada's transition to a green economy
Steadfast in his commitment to getting Canadian oil to market, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said putting pipelines in the ground will pay for the country's transition to a greener future.
Opening the Globe 2016 Leadership Summit in Vancouver on Wednesday — which deals with tackling climate change and sustainability in business — the Liberal leader dodged questions about whether building controversial energy projects like the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion and Energy East pipeline would directly contravene his commitment at COP21 in Paris to keep global warming below two degrees this century....
Thu, 2016-03-03 15:27
#11
Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adams stormed out of the meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s premiers and Indigenous leaders on climate change in Vancouver Wednesday because he said it fell to shambles.
“I think Canada’s in a crisis and it ain’t going to get any better now. Canada failed terribly, the provinces failed terribly in regards to addressing this issue,” said an infuriated Adam.
According to Adam the meeting didn’t include any talks of taking care of mother earth, instead the focus was placed on economic development and transitioning to a green economy.
Adam whose community sits three hours north of the Alberta tar sands said he’s now prepping to take the federal and provincial governments to court.
“The time has come to say that we are done with this. We’ve had enough. We’re not going to stand around and wait for these guys to do what they’ve got to do. Alberta wants to develop more, well, we will be there to stand in the way. We will not sell out to corporations nor will we ever be silenced ever. That’s our right,” he said.
Requests from chiefs to acquire more time to engage in discussions on climate and attend the first minister’s meeting Thursday were abruptly turned down by Trudeau, said Treaty 6 Grand Chief Tony Alexis.
quote:
Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day also expressed disappointment with the meeting and is rallying Canada chiefs to gather at the convention center Thursday outside where Trudeau and the premiers will be meeting.
“The process that the first minister’s meeting is proposing is that they’re going to now go away and determine what a declaration on our issues look like. That’s wrong, it’s not acceptable and might actually be to the peril of any pan Canadian climate change strategy,” said Day.
Day is advocating for a First Nations led climate change accord to be established in response to the growing “crisis” of climate change.
“What it all boils down to is us going back to our communities now and having to explain that we didn’t really have any say or input and that there was nothing resolved,” said Day. “We are now going to be faced with the leaders at the local level within our treaty territories saying ‘listen something else has to be done here’. We have no time to waste.”
Thu, 2016-03-03 18:28
#12
precisely! As if Trudeau has any power to do anything! I say it again...the solution lies in building international indigenous agreements, and if need be, boycotts and sanctions against Canada if it continues to violate the established international rights of the Indigenous Peoples!
Fri, 2016-03-04 17:09
#13
Premiers develop historic framework for clean growth and climate change
quote:
A "plan to make a plan"
The Vancouver Declaration is an "outline of the vision and principles" that will guide provincial and territorial governments moving forward on sustainable and clean economic growth, said a joint statement from the premiers and prime minister.
...
VIDEO: Elizabeth May applauds premiers on climate but urges bolder action