The Ecology Action Centre isn’t waiting on the province to lay out the details of a new climate plan, and instead, they issued their own report at a press conference Tuesday.
The new report explores the environmental and economic costs and benefits of meeting new climate goals, which they’ve set beyond 2030.
“What we’re looking for at the EAC (Ecology Action Centre) is new strong legislative goals that are ambitious on climate change,” siad Stephen Thomas, the energy campaign coordinator with EAC.
“And we’re looking for in-person public consultations and framework that leaves no one behind.”
The province of Nova Scotia is currently reviewing new legislation that will help guide its climate plan for the next decade, with a goal of ensuring a healthy environment.
The new Sustainable Prosperity Act will replace the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (EGSPA) which expires in 2020.
The Ecology Action Centre says the province is late in laying out its new climate plan and is urging the province to engage in a more robust public consultation process before the new act is published.
The province is currently asking Nova Scotians to share their feedback on the new green strategy through an online email questionnaire, which closes September 27th.
The EAC’s new report was administered by staff along with economic consultants with Gardner Pinfold and is broken down into six environmental goals, including reducing greenhouse gases, electrifying personal and public transit and decarbonizing Nova Scotia’s electricity grid.\
Meeting these goals, they say, also creates new economic opportunities and green jobs.
New jobs in clean energy manufacturing like wind and solar energy are examples that would reduce the province’s need and reliance on coal-fired energy generation to power the energy grid, says Gregor MacAskill, economist and author of the report.
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“You can imagine people today working in coal-fired power plants. We would be looking to find jobs in generating electricity from renewables,” said MacAskill.
“So still delivering power to Nova Scotians but doing it in a different way.”
Another goal is to make 100 per cent of social housing in the province net-zero energy ready. These improvements to homes’ efficiency would not only make living more comfortable for the residents and reduce energy consumption, but it would also give a boost to those in the construction trades.
“The deep energy retrofits would require some new manufacturing,” said MacAskill “That’s new manufacturing, new jobs, and training required to do that.”
The province announced Tuesday in Mulgrave Park that they’ll invest $11 million in retrofitting public housing across Nova Scotia with energy efficiency upgrades — another boost for green jobs.
“Across the province, businesses are creating jobs in the energy efficiency sector and throughout the green economy,” said Derek Mombourquette, minister of energy and mines.
“Investments like this have helped Nova Scotia become a national leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and this will only build on our successes.”
It’s expected the province will release its new climate goals later this fall. Meanwhile, the Ecology Action Centre is encouraging the province to reach out and engage the public in more robust consultation process before they do that.
WATCH: (Aug. 28, 2019) Nova Scotia to introduce new environmental legislation tackling climate change
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