Alberta’s days of climate denial and inaction are over, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips told the Pembina Institute climate summit in Edmonton earlier this week.
“There is a great appetite for action on climate change in our province,” Phillips declared in her keynote address to the summit. “Alberta needs globally credible climate change policies,” and “credibility doesn’t come from pie-in-the-sky commitments. It comes from saying you are going to do something and then actually doing it.”
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She added that action on environment and climate “is integral to Alberta’s economic future. In order to remain competitive, ensure market access for our energy products, Alberta must and will improve our environmental performance.”
Alberta accounts for 37% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, Phillips said, a total that is set to increase to 39% by 2020. “She told the conference that governments have been setting ambitious climate change goals for years without achieving them,” CBC reports. “She suggested that will change with her government.”
