Our executive director, Lois Corbett, appeared in a story by CBC New Brunswick’s Julianne Hazlewood about New Brunswick being on track to miss its greenhouse gas reduction targets.
In the latest climate action plan, the province committed to reducing greenhouse gases to 10 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. While we were on track to accomplish the goal for many years, CBC obtained government documents that revealed New Brunswick is no longer on schedule to meet its commitment.
The documents estimate the province will come up 3-million tonnes short, or the equivalent of 600,000 cars on the road for a year.
Speaking to Ms. Hazlewood, Lois Corbett commented on the contradictory position our government is currently putting itself in, where it recognizes that we don’t have a good enough plan to meet our current reduction targets, yet it continues to support a project that would make us more dependent on fossil fuels in the form of the proposed Energy East oil pipeline.
Corbett said New Brunswick needs to introduce legislation to reduce industrial and transportation emissions, instead of waiting for the federal sector-by-sector approach to kick in.
“I think there’s been a reliance too long in New Brunswick on hoping that the federal government will move in and put a cap on industrial emissions,” she told Ms. Hazlewood. “When are we going to stop believing the myth that the feds are going to take some action on climate change?”
Corbett said it’s possible for New Brunswick to reach its emissions reductions if NB Power converts Belledune to a more green source of energy, such as biomass, as Ontario has done.
Watch the video and read the article from cbc.ca here.
Dr. Loise Comeau, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, was also interviewed about the reduction shortfall. While we’re not on track to meet our goal yet, Dr. Comeau said we can still get there with focused political action. Listen to her comments here and watch an interview here.