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Canada and 1.5 degrees: Rhetoric or real change?
11/12/15
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If the Liberals are serious about their “ambitious” climate goals, Energy East is dead.
On Sunday, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced that Canada would support over 50 small island states and vulnerable nations calling for a new limit of 1.5C of warming to be enshrined in the Paris climate agreement.
If McKenna and the rest of Justin Trudeau’s government mean what they say about supporting this ambitious target, it’s time to rattle off the good news: Energy East is dead, the twinning of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline is history, the vast majority of the tar sands will be left in the ground, and Canada is about to begin decarbonizing its economy at a heroic and unprecedented rate.
We may be in Paris, but hold the champagne.
The science is clear: it would require nothing short of a miracle to curb the frighteningly rapid rise of global temperatures at 1.5C above historic levels. With 2015 on track to becoming the warmest year on record, it was reported for the first time last month that global average temperatures have already risen by 1C, leaving only half a degree of warming left until we reach the 1.5C limit. That means we have a lot — some would say an impossible amount — to do to decarbonize over the next few decades.
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