Can Canada walk its talk in Paris?

Details: Published on Tuesday, 01 December 2015 12:00; Written by editor

Friends,

Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the United Nations climate change conference in Paris. As you can probably expect, he said a lot of great things.

It’s also true that Canada is starting off on the right foot with significant commitments for climate financing and investments in renewables on the table in Paris. But, while some signs are positive, Trudeau was noticeably silent about what his government plans to do about our fastest growing source of climate pollution -- the tar sands.

For close to a decade, Stephen Harper promised and failed to deliver climate regulations on the oil and gas industry. Now, Justin Trudeau is in Paris with Harper’s climate targets and refusing to address tar sands emissions.

It’s great to see a new approach to showing up at these meetings, but we need bold action and real change. That starts with recognizing that we need to keep fossil fuels, especially the... tar sands, in the ground.

Click here to tell the Prime Minister that it’s time to freeze tar sands expansion.

This past weekend, thousands of people across Canada were in the streets to send a clear message that, among other things, we can’t meet our climate obligations and expand the tar sands. Yet this government is avoiding the issue at the most important climate summit in years. And, at the same time as the Prime Minister is making big statements about his climate ambitions in Paris, he's poised to break a major climate promise here at home by allowing the illegitimate review of tar sands pipelines like Energy East and the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain projects to move forward without considering their climate impact.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may be telling the world that Canada is back on climate, but to get the real change we need, we need to demand it. Click here to add your voice.

Onwards,

Aurore Fauret

P.S. We’re also getting ready to launch a plan to hold the Prime Minister to his promise to include climate change and community voices in the reviews of tar sands pipelines. Keep your eyes peeled because we’re going to need to do this big and act quickly.

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