The Way to Net Zero

In the midst of two crises - the pandemic and climate change, it’s easy to forget the promises that goverments made re the latter - to bring carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 - that’s thirty years away. It seems a long time except we also promised to be half way there by 2030 - and we are not even close.

I heard Isabel Turcotte, The Pembina Institute’s Director of federal policy speak at a seminar of the University of Toronto’s Department of the Environment late last year - and she has recently written a good article for Corporate Knights, outlining some principles that the corporate world needs to follow - reminding us that goals are not solely about government initiatives.

• Carbon budgets are necessary to measure progress. We have to know where we stand and whether we are making progress or just talking

• We have to start early. It’s no point in having a long term goal and delaying putting it into action.

• We have to effect the reductions by using all the tools at hand - not just one.

• Corporation s have to work together and initiate policy - Turcotte terms it “turning up the heat.

  Good reminders.

What works for one . . . .

.The mantra - usually ignored by You Know Who for Covid-19 is “Listen to the Scientists” . Would that it also be the one for Climate Change. We see many admonitions on the pandemic from jounrnalists that are contradictory and confusing - and some of the time they blame the scientists for changing their tune. What they don’t seem to recognize is that authentic science is fact based. When new science emerges from studies of evidence, the message can change.

That said, the scientic message too often produces despair rather than reflection leading to action. But there is a response to good listening. One of my listening posts is Yale Climate connections. You can read their latest offering here.

Back to normal or forward to new?

CHRISTIANA FIGUERES AND TOM RIVETT-CARNAC wrote a good article in a recent issue of Fast Company..

These excerpts challenge us.

In just a few short months the health crisis has already provided valuable insights applicable to the climate change crisis. We have learned that global challenges are in fact global, as they stop at no border and spare no geography. We have learned that global challenges require both governmental policy measures and individual behavioral changes and that both can be enacted quickly. We have relearned that it is best to prevent rather than to cure, and to do so with measures based on science rather than fantasy. Finally, we have learned that no one is safe until we are all safe.

We are all in this together, and there is an urgent need for building community and collaborating across governments, corporations, the financial sector, and civil society.

The health crisis is a bitter foretaste of what climate change might bring: massive social breakdown, permanent poverty, and economic devastation for decades to come. Having experienced the social and economic trauma of the health crisis, we should decide not to tempt our fate any further.

There are things you can do!

I liked this article in the recent Yale Climate Connections Newsletter and its cartoon.

You can read the question and answer here.

For Earth Day

In my local community , a three day performing arts festival was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with a number of artists and ensembles donating their services. Schola Magdalene, a woman’s musical ensemble offered this lovely message for us all.