TIM LOUIS - ON THE ISSUES

A True North strong and free — from carbon

Posted on by Tim Louis

greenauroraIt’s time, in more ways than one, for a made-in-Canada Green New Deal.

The COVID 19 pandemic seems to have convinced the federal Liberals that large deficits are now appropriate given the economic collapse we’re experiencing that echoes the Great Depression.

I can think of a very good way to invest this deficit spending.

Last summer, my partner Penny and I were just two of many people across Canada who hosted a workshop to brainstorm ideas for shaping a federal Green New Deal. It was sponsored by the Pact for a Green New Deal, a nonpartisan coalition of individuals and 65+ organisations. The coalition was modelled on Le Pacte pour un transition in Quebec.

A lot of exciting, practical ideas came out of that workshop many months ago. Now, since a Canadian Green New Deal is long overdue, it makes perfect economic sense for the federal Liberals to use a big chunk of that deficit financing to make it a reality.

Last week, I was excited to learn about the ambitious green deal being proposed by the European Union. Hailed as the world greenest post-pandemic economic recovery package, it was featured in Bloomberg Green, the climate-news arm of the financial/media giant, Bloomberg, which was started by former Democratic presidential hopeful, Michael Bloomberg. (BTW, I’m really glad to see that Bloomberg Green is data-based and reports several great metrics, such as the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, like I do here in my blog; the amount the area of Arctic ice has decreased vs. the historic average — it’s down 7.21%; and the amount of money invested in renewable power worldwide — nearly US$82 billion as of the last quarter of 2019.)

Here are just some of the dynamic proposals up for consideration by the 27 EU member-states, according to Bloomberg Green:

    • 60 to 80 billion euros to boost electric vehicle sales and double investment in EV-charging networks.
    • An option to exempt electric vehicles from the EU’s value-added tax. (We could do the same with our GST.)
    • 91 billion euros annually in grants and guarantees for sealing drafty buildings, and plans to offer home buyers green mortgages.
    • 10 billion euros to leverage finance for 7.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy projects over the next two years.
    • 10 billion euros annually to boost renewables and hydrogen infrastructure
    • Up to 30 billion euros for developing green hydrogen that can curb emissions in some of the hardest-to-tackle industries, like steel- and cement-making.

These are huge initiatives that would help transform our global climate dilemma! Any or all of them — adapted to Canadian needs on a Canadian scale — would make an impressive start for a made-in-Canada green recovery plan.

Note that Bloomberg Green also reports that a green recovery could create 850,000 jobs in the U.K. if recovery funds are used to fast-track decarbonization. Imagine something like that for Canada!

Let’s take advantage of the federal government’s new willingness to run significant recovery-based deficits and urge major spending to make a Green New Deal a reality, and the True North strong and free — from carbon.

More information on a Canadian Green New Deal: 

 

Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (May 27, 2020): 417.88 ppm

One year ago (May 27, 2019): 414.82 ppm

Click here to sign my empty homes tax petition!

 

Canadian politics climate action climate change economy Site C Dam sustainability tar sands