• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Opinion: Toronto Councillors Can Help Wind Down Fossil Fuel Proliferation

July 13, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes
Full Story: ClimateFast @ClimateFast
Primary Author: Allie Rougeot @AlienorR2, Lyn Adamson @LynAdamson1, Tzeporah Berman @Tzeporah

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

23
SHARES
 

Allie Rougeot is Toronto coordinator for Fridays for Future. Lyn Adamson is co-chair of ClimateFast. Tzeporah Berman is chair of the Global Campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Days after people across the Greater Toronto Area watched a “heat dome” scorch much of western Canada and burn Lytton, British Columbia to the ground, Toronto City Council has a unique opportunity to help turn down the heat.

By supporting Councillors Mike Layton’s and Shelley Carroll’s motion this week to endorse a global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, our elected representatives can get at the root cause of a rolling emergency that Toronto is wholly unprepared to confront in its own back yard.

The heat dome brought an insufferable wave of oppressive temperatures, with consequences that were immediate and severe. In western Canada alone, an estimated 700 people died, hundreds of wildfires burned, and a billion marine animals perished. Scientists say such an extreme heat event would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.

The reports of the heat dome, pictures of the fires, and stories of First Nations firefighters working to save their neighbours and their communities—all make it clear that the climate emergency is not a distant threat. It is happening now.

While Toronto dodged the extreme heat in June, there is major cause for alarm. We’re expected to see the fourth-largest climate shift among the world’s major cities. Fortunately, the city has kicked into action, declaring a climate emergency and adopting an ambitious climate action plan, Transform TO, in 2019.

Unfortunately, Canadian cities’ efforts to cut climate pollution and increase resilience to extreme weather are being undermined by higher levels of government in Canada and around the world that refuse to address the main source of the problem: oil, gas and coal production.

Countries’ pledge to limit global warming to 1.5°C was a centrepiece of the 2015 Paris Agreement. But years later, emissions are still rising, and fossil fuel companies are expanding production – with governments’ permission and lavish subsidies. That’s a sure ticket to more heat waves, droughts, flooding, and extreme weather events, with more lives and livelihoods lost and more collapsed ecosystems. The impacts will fall ever more harshly on those already suffering under systemic inequities—racialized communities, First Nations, people on low incomes, people experiencing poverty and homelessness, youth and future generations.

So we need to reduce production of oil, gas and coal. Not in 2030 or by 2050. Now.

To meet the Paris goals, fossil fuel expansion must end and production must wind down. But no country can do it alone. That’s why more than 1,400 scientists, city governments, and 101 of the world’s Nobel Laureates have joined the call for international cooperation through a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In endorsing the initiative and asking the federal government to do the same, Toronto would join Vancouver, Barcelona, Los Angeles and many others, including an ex-coal mining community in the UK.

When countries around the world came together to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons, cities played an integral role in banding together and urging nations to act. Today’s expansion of oil, gas and coal is the greatest threat we face, and cities again have a role to play in compelling the bold action we need. We have the technology at scale to replace most uses of fossil fuels with renewable energy and energy efficiency, often at less cost than burning fossil fuels. It’s time to get on with it.

When you’re in an emergency, you have to act like it. Toronto City Council can build on its climate leadership by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty the motion comes to the floor July 14. Together we can act to ensure a safe future, for today’s youth and for generations to come.



in Canada, Cities & Communities, Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Impacts & Adaptation, COP Conferences, Demand & Distribution, Drought, Famine & Wildfires, Heat & Temperature, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
1
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
2
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
3

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 14, 2022
614
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
1.7k
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
347
Muramasa/Wikimedia Commons

Newfoundland Wind Farm Would Power Coastal Green Hydrogen Plant

July 17, 2022
720

Focus Blame for Climate Change on Fossils and Governments, Ecoanalytics Advises

August 11, 2022
154
Bernard Spragg/flickr

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
291

Recent Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
1
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
2
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
3
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
1
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
1
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
1
Next Post
Province of British Columbia/flickr

'Nothing to See Here, Folks', as Canada Sends Updated Carbon Target to UN

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}