The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) has been working with other municipal and provincial government agencies through the Sustainable Canada Dialogues to advocate for a science-based, viable solution to climate change that could allow Canada to reduce its emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The agency provided input to a group of some 70 Canadian scientists who recently released a report, Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian Scholars, and are advocating that the federal government play a bigger role on climate change.
VEC staff also participated in the Sustainable Canada Dialogues in Montreal last month to help draft a letter to Premiers as input to the April Premiers Summit on Climate Change, and as preparation for Canada’s position for the pivotal Paris Climate Change Conference in December. The VEC was a key part of this unique encounter between decision makers and scholars to provide concrete recommendations on advancing a climate change agenda in Canada.
The VEC’s participation discredits the perception that scientists are battling business people and politicians, and that businesses and government are opposed to taking action on climate change. The VEC is joined by leaders at the highest levels of city and provincial governments, in recognizing that taking action on climate change is in fact one of the biggest opportunities for innovation and wealth creation in Canada. This outlook is driven by data tracked by the VEC that shows a 19 percent increase in green jobs between 2010 and 2013 (four times the national average).
The VEC actively supports concrete solutions to climate change in Vancouver through its own work in supporting the growth of the green economy. The VEC has programs to help emerging clean technology companies find platforms to test and demonstrate their innovations; to celebrate local leaders that are finding business value in sustainability; and to turn inner city industrial lands into hubs of green enterprise and green jobs.
The letter to Canada’s Premiers is a critical step in reversing what many see as Canada’s “backwards” course on climate change. The Sustainable Canada Dialogues is a response to United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-moon’s exhortation to all countries in the world to raise the ambitions of their climate change policies to avoid a global temperature increase of more than 2°C during this century.
You can take action by endorsing the scholarly report or writing directly to your federal representatives.
Image source: Sustainable Canada Dialogues
