CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN NOT AMBITIOUS ENOUGH
NDP leader Todd Hardy says the Yukon government’s climate change action plan does not set the bar high enough in reducing the territory’s emissions of greenhouse gases or encouraging the use of renewable energy for our communities, businesses and vehicles.
"This plan, which took three, long years to complete, will not do enough to discourage the use of fossil fuels," Hardy says. "Our government is moving much too slowly and timidly in combating the biggest threat facing our planet today."
The 43-page plan dwells too much on adapting to climate change and does too little to encourage the private and public sectors to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels or switch to cleaner alternatives. It focuses on the symptoms of climate change rather than the causes.
"And it only commits the government’s internal operations to be carbon neutral by 2020," Hardy adds. "Eleven years seems like a long time to achieve carbon neutrality in the internal operations of such a small jurisdiction. And it plans to wait another two years before setting a target to reduce the territory’s overall emissions. Why the delay?"
Several provinces have much stronger plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. British Columbia, for example, plans to set mandatory fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and cap and reduce emissions for industry.
Another major flaw of the Yukon’s climate change action plan is its failure to provide enough incentives to get homeowners off oil and communities, such as Old Crow, off diesel.
"The Yukon government needs to start looking much farther ahead and deal with this crisis more holistically," Hardy adds.
"As we approach the end of the carbon age, it still refuses to recognize that fact in this warm and fuzzy, feel-good document. I would also like the government back up some of its vague commitments with specific sums allocated to expand our use of renewable alternatives, such as geothermal, solar and wind."