The International Energy Agency has warned that the world is headed for irreversible climate change in five years. If our fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, we will foreclose future options for acting, cited in an article by The Guardian. Our own National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy just released a report, Paying the Price, The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada, stating that global emissions will have a price tag for Canada (up to 25% of Canada's GDP), and arguing for investments in adaptation and mitigation. In a November 8, 2012 press release, Matt Horne, director of the Pembina Institute's climate change program stated, "If the government is truly serious about advancing international talks on addressing climate change, it needs to demonstrate how it will achieve the commitments it has already made. Canada should be leading at home and advancing constructive solutions abroad, rather than lagging at home and undermining international efforts to address greenhouse gas pollution. . .A country of similar population and economy, Australia's government passed a carbon tax that, in addition to sending a strong price signal to move away from dirty energy sources, will provide $10 billion over five years for citizens and businesses to make the shift to cleaner options".
One of my research partners on MC3, John Robinson, and I wrote in 1995 that the time to act is now, we have enough information, enough science, we must act. There are many wonderful initiatives happening in this country, and especially in the province of British Columbia, one of which is the CIRS building at UBC which just opened this month, a regenerative building all about accelerating sustainability. I am particularly sorry that I could not be there for the opening; this building demonstrates our ability to improve our world by giving back to the environment, we are more than capable of building carbon neutral buildings now but also regnerative buildings.
We will be documenting the outcomes of this research project as soon as possible from our case studies in order to accelerate leading edge practices in climate change adaptation and mitigation. You may wish to look at the six international leaders already published on this website. Ann Dale