The Conservation Council of New Brunswick has released its recommendations for addressing the growing issue of climate change and is hoping to get the attention of the provincial government as its climate change committee prepares to meet with presenters and concerned parties this summer.
“What we’re trying to do here is propose a plan that the province would implement to help reduce the risk to our citizens and communities from a changing climate,” Dr. Louise Comeau, Climate Change & Energy Solutions director for the council, said.
Comeau describes the plan as a three-pronged approach: shift to renewable energy and away from oil and coal, make investments towards creating a more energy efficient industry with less waste, and legislate emission reductions while implementing carbon pricing to discourage fossil fuel use.
“When we didn’t want people to use leaded gasoline because it was damaging to brain development in young children, we added a price and then unleaded gasoline was cheaper to use,” Comeau explained. “That’s what we’re doing with carbon pollution.”
The plan is well timed since the New Brunswick government recently formed a committee to address climate change which will meet with presenters throughout the province this summer.
MLA Andrew Harvey is chairing the committee. While he says it would be premature to speculate on what will come of these discussions, many of the topics covered in the Conservation Council’s report are already on the committee’s radar.
“Carbon pricing is one element of it,” he said. “Clean technology, mitigation, adaptation, climate change touches a lot of our economy obviously so we’ll look at all those factors.”
Presenters have until the end of the week to put their names forward to meet with the committee, something the Conservation Council fully intends on taking part in.
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