Notes from the Environmental Defence Canada webinar of May 21st

Notes on the Environmental Defence Webinar in The Recovery Series, given May 21st.

The majority of Canadians support the concept of a Green New Deal, but Alberta is blocking Canada's progress during the Corona virus crisis. Nineteen environmental requirements have been ignored by that province lately. How do we regain the ground lost to "big oil" companies and their supporters?

Keith Brooks (whose "passion for the environment was born in a canoe on the rivers and lakes of Northern Ontario"), Programs Director at Environmental Defence, was "cautiously optimistic", spoke of ways to build a clean economy. More investment should be made in

• environmentally friendly retrofits to houses
• a clean transportation infrastructure (in particular, more charging stations)
• requirements to sell more electric vehicles
• clean energy generation
• the development of a circular economy

Recovery programs are proven to do better if green; the EU is already going in this direction in order to reach zero emissions by 2050. Massive investments are being made in Europe, but it's "not yet a done deal" in Canada, so as individuals we must be prepared to take action:

• Sign the petitions
• Call our MPs, requesting a meeting with them(!)
• Write a letter to the editor of our local paper

We need to communicate with the people in authority who have the time and the inclination to listen.

The other featured presenter in this Webinar was a young representative of Fridays for Future, Allienor (Allie) Rougeot. She didn't seem happy about having to comply with the lock-down rules — "I had to be, like, introspecting," she confessed.

The pandemic has killed the momentum of the youth climate strikes; on the other hand, it has given their participants the time and opportunity to build "resilient networks" for future activism and to educate both themselves and their supporters. For example, "mobilization squads" have formed at the universities. Since the student strikers left the streets, the opposition (oil lobbyists and company) have tried to fill the void. "We're fighting hard not to be pessimistic," Allie says. "If we weren't idealists we'd be crying."

However, although Canada is producing more oil than ever before, the economic returns aren't visible, and there's no point in placing bets on a dying industry. Governments are searching for alternative solutions and industries are realizing that they need to rethink their strategies. Covid-19 is teaching us that public pressure works and people are now more likely to trust experts and scientists and to understand how acting fast can save lives.

Small nuclear installations are not the immediate solution because they still need 10-20 years of development before they become viable. The technology is still too risky and they are not cheaper than wind and solar farms, where the costs have dropped faster than anticipated. We should be investing in battery storage, rather than nuclear power.

The government of Canada is the biggest investor in fossil fuels, the oil sands project being the biggest sponsored project* in Canadian history. Billions of dollars have been spent and the massive liabilities will leave taxpayers with a big debt to pay. The governments of Germany and China, on the other hand, are supporting the development of renewable energy; that's where the future is, and their actions are driving costs down.

* It is thought-provoking to see that the Government of Canada does not appear to have updated its public webpage about future developments in the fuel industry since 2015.