Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Senator Coyle’s inquiry on Canada’s path to decarbonization.

Current average global temperatures are close to 1.2 centigrade above pre-industrial levels. Canada has experienced twice that warming and the Arctic three times. These changes are leading to intense heatwaves, melting permafrost, sea-level rise, intense and frequent extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity and species extinction. Each of these impacts, in turn, cause a series of domino effects that infiltrate every facet of our society.

We have upset the delicate balance of the life-support systems provided by our planet. Stresses to our atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere result in the destabilization of natural systems, which are becoming less predictable. For example, changes in temperature and precipitation patterns are reducing crop yields in some regions, and severe weather events are displacing families. Both disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.

The thawing of permafrost is causing $51 million worth of damage to the Northwest Territories’ public infrastructure each year. Canada’s Northern communities and industries are particularly vulnerable because they rely heavily on permafrost for the foundations of their buildings and roadways. Through my work on cumulative impacts in the Mackenzie River watershed, I learned that this huge watershed is a key natural water-ice-climate system that helps stabilize the whole Earth’s climate.

When we look at coastal erosion in the Arctic, some islands are experiencing coastline loss at a rate 20 to 30 times faster than anywhere else in Canada. We are talking about losses of over 40 millimetres per year. Last spring, during a mission to the Arctic with the Canadian Navy, I learned that, in less than 10 years, we have gone from measuring erosion in millimetres per year to metres per year. Senators, we are literally losing our territory to the oceans.

The science is clear, and if we don’t listen and act, this generation of politicians — you and I included — will be remembered as indifferent. We all know dramatic negative impacts associated with climate change are not a distant future; they are getting worse day by day. If we wish to maintain any semblance of the prosperity and well-being that we enjoy today, we must act now on two fronts: attenuate emissions and adapt to climate change.

Earth’s support systems, like emissions, do not know borders. It is essential to see the Earth in a holistic manner, a network of interconnected systems that must be considered as a whole. Emissions from each country are shared with others, and our fates are intertwined. For example, the downstream emissions associated with the combustion of the fossil fuels that Canada exports every year are just as important as the emissions that occur within our borders, doubling our annual footprint. These emissions will have an impact in Canada even if they occur abroad. We all share the same atmosphere.

The extraction, processing and combustion of fossil fuels for energy are the primary emitters of greenhouse gases. In fact, 78% of the total increase in emissions between the 1970s and 2010 are due to fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes. Our reliance on them and reluctance to switch to less carbon-intensive sources are resulting in a slow and inefficient decarbonization process.

Our past inaction means the era where incremental reductions would have sufficed is behind us, unfortunately. Only rapid transformation can be meaningful at this point. We need to avoid the improvement trap where some reductions occur in the short term but impede the essential need to see the big picture of transition.

Colleagues, the climate protests of 2019 and the prominence of climate action as an election issue have demonstrated the public concern for this issue. The majority of Canadians from all provinces believe energy transition is necessary, and they voted for parties with climate plans.

Financial institutions are reacting. We have to listen to the economy. In 2017, global investments in renewable energy exceeded $279 billion, adding to a cumulative $2.2 trillion since 2010. Investments in fossil fuels are melting away, exactly as our Arctic. To date, $14 trillion from over a thousand institutions have been divested from oil and gas companies. Divestment includes the Norwegian $1-trillion sovereign wealth fund and BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, announced its withdrawal. Insurance companies, such as AXA, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance, have announced they will no longer provide coverage to unconventional oil projects.

Rather than rally Canadian financial institutions and our pension funds to shore up a sunset industry, we would be better placed putting these resources toward a just transition for workers. This year, a government research report produced by Finland’s government warns that the increasingly unsustainable economics of the oil industry could derail the global financial system within the next few years. We are not talking decades.

This government has committed to exceed Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction goal and make Canada a net-zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2050. To accomplish this, they will set legally binding five-year milestones and appoint a group of experts to recommend the best path for reaching that target. Enshrining accountability mechanisms in law will be the key to ensuring we don’t keep following this trend of adopting targets that are not achievable and that we keep missing.

In the spirit of Senator Coyle’s inquiry, I urge the government to act on this promise. It is time to take advantage of this opportunity to fundamentally improve upon our social and economic institutions; to shake off past and wrong ideologies; embrace evidence and facts; and create a plan that is ambitious, transparent and accountable.

We are not alone in this objective. Two nations have already achieved net-zero emissions and 67 countries, including the whole EU, have taken significant steps toward implementing net-zero targets. The leading countries have enshrined their policies in law or formed cross-party coalitions to set their plans in motion. We, the tenth largest economy in the world, remain lagging with 102 other nations behind the most important issue of the 21st century.

A domestic discussion has started budding around decarbonization. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, the Energy and Materials Research Group, the Trottier Energy Futures Project, The Solutions Project and the Winning on Climate Action Plan have all proposed ways forward and collectively point to the need to reimagine how cultural norms and behaviours must change. Hopefully, the brand-new Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, a collection of some of our nation’s leading experts in climate change mitigation and clean growth, will contribute to this important endeavour.

Canadians are innovators, and we must allow individual creativity to reinvent the future around a great social dialogue, starting by ensuring that the issue of climate change is incorporated into curricula and training programs across Canada, using Italy’s recent initiative as an example.

I would like to draw your attention to one initiative in particular. Quebec’s Front commun pour la transition énergétique has proposed a road map that will enable that province to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 in all key sectors of society. The document is the result of a collective, iterative process that required the participation of community-based NGOs, NGOs dedicated to the environment, human rights, development and the economy, as well as civil society groups, Indigenous communities, farmers, unions and academic researchers. Everyone must participate. Those groups established an iterative process so that reflection and consultation could continue with the goal of developing a social consensus around a transformational and positive vision of the future.

I hope to see more such initiatives across the country, and I hope that we, as parliamentarians, will do everything we can to encourage them.

The best decarbonization plan will span many sectors and invoke a variety of tools and technologies. One such set of tools are nature-based solutions which employ ecosystem services to reduce emissions and store carbon. They present cost-efficient, energy-passive, low-maintenance and resilience-building solutions that also bring co-benefits such as constructing carbon sinks, developing habitats and protecting biodiversity and ecological services, but most importantly, it opens opportunities for economic development. Forest management, wetland preservation and conservation and agriculture are examples of nature-based solutions. It was the topic of the panel of discussion that I hosted yesterday, and I thank very much those who came and participated from all parties.

Another low-hanging fruit is the mandatory adoption of building codes. Energy efficiency in the construction industry and electrification of our mass transport are easy steps forward that we must adopt now.

Often we hear arguments about the cost of action and how much it is going to cost for these initiatives. Colleagues, I challenge you to justify the economic, financial, societal and moral costs of our inaction.

In 2011, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy predicted the cost of inaction could reach $91 billion per year in Canada by 2050. Severe weather events have already cost $1.9 billion in insured damages in 2018, up from an average of $405 million per year between 1983 and 2008. Who is paying all of those costs? All of us. Of course, the more vulnerable pay the bigger bill.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly support Senator Coyle’s initiative on this. The time for rhetoric has passed, and our window for action is narrowing.

In that regard, I want to note that the other house has an all-party climate change caucus which organizes educational events for MPs. I urge my colleagues to participate in these events and to think about forming such a caucus in the Senate.

Nelson Mandela said:

Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure . . . . As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

We have the knowledge and technology. There has never been more economic means than today. The only thing missing, dear colleagues, is the courage to move forward boldly and together. It is time to be powerful.