Canada's NDP

Skip to main content

October 8th, 2018

IPCC Report: Liberals Must Act, It's Urgent!

NDP Environment Critic Alexandre Boulerice made the following statement:

“The report tabled Sunday night by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is unequivocal: if no changes are made, humanity will lose its fight against climate change. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna, have made moving speeches for three years, but because of their inaction, we already know the country will not be able to achieve the goals it has set by signing the Paris agreement on climate change. With their highly inadequate approach, the Liberals are contributing to humanity's climate disaster.

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development has slammed the Liberals on a number of occasions for their disastrous record in protecting the environment. The OECD has already given them numerous warnings. Now, thousands of scientists and experts from around the world are sounding the alarm: if major and unprecedented transformations are not quickly done, it will no longer be possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

I wonder what it will take for the Liberals to understand what is going on. According to the IPCC, the world needs to reduce its GHG emissions by 45% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. Also according to the IPCC, the use of oil would have to decrease by at least 80%. Buying a pipeline like Trans Mountain and opening the door to Energy East's return is not how the Liberals will succeed in fighting climate change! Is pleasing their friends in the oil industry more important than trying to save our environment? What kind of planet do they want to leave to their children?

We are already seeing the impacts of climate change in Canada: longer heat waves, climate refugees, species extinctions, crop losses, floods, forest fires, heat islands, disruption of our ecosystems and other extreme weather events. It's simple, this is our most important fight and if Justin Trudeau needs ideas on how to finally do the right thing, I'm happy to sit down with him and Canadian experts to help him figure it out. "