This text is part of the special report The State of Quebec 2023
While Quebec is facing a perilous economic, social and environmental situation, the luxury of inaction, soft transition or “small steps” is no longer possible. In this excerpt from a text published in The State of Quebec 2023two economists denounce the lack of will of the governments of our industrialized economies and call for a real “transformation”.
It is imperative to change the very structure of our society and, for this, the 2022 IPCC report offers us several possible solutions for a responsible ecological roadmap. A first round of recommendations concerns the use and management of energy: replacing fossil fuels with clean energies, limiting carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
The IPCC also recommends further structural changes to limit the energy consumption of the whole population. From the insulation of buildings to sustainable transport, through the modification of diets that abandon meat products and favor vegetarianism, the group of experts is banking on a strategy of change by demand (i.e. economic actors), supported by government guidelines. The latter should be implemented without delay, the UN organization tells us, to influence and condition everyone’s decisions.
The government of Quebec is not to be outdone and has all the necessary tools to integrate these public policies to fight against global warming into its economic decisions.
Traditional government responses to environmental issues are often economic measures that involve awareness, taxation and regulation. These tools are used primarily to mitigate environmental impacts by assigning them a monetary value in economic models that aim to promote growth.
However, one of the major shortcomings of these measures is that they do not take into account the economic and social inequalities they generate. Indeed, climate change has unequal impacts on the population. It is mainly low-income households and vulnerable populations who suffer the most from climatic upheavals and who do not have the financial capacity to adapt to them. […]
To sustain our social systems, it is imperative to include climate change as a risk factor in order to avoid a real social divide within the population. The growth paradigm must therefore not only take into account the inequalities generated by an unequal distribution of this growth, but also take into account environmental injustices.
We can therefore clearly see the synergy that is being established between the economy, the environment and the management of inequalities. We can no longer ignore, for example, the fact that an economic activity such as that of the Horne smelter, of the Glencore company, in Rouyn-Noranda, stimulates growth but, by the same token, also generates toxic metals (including arsenic) that are released into the air that people breathe. The households that live near the foundry live in the most disadvantaged neighborhood of the city and therefore do not have the means to relocate. They experience arsenic exposure levels 33 times higher than the government standard. This is without taking into account the fact that apart from its impact on human health, the Horne smelter also contaminates lakes, plants and animals over tens of kilometers, to such an extent that species have disappeared and that we are discouraged population to consume hunting and fishing products from an area located within a radius of 50 kilometers around the factory.
Soft transition or real transformation?
Faced with the triple crisis that Quebec is going through, it is essential to consider the interrelationships between the three spheres which create feedback loops and can accentuate the consequences on the other spheres in the event of government action. The challenge here is therefore to find solutions and new concepts to try to better reconcile the economy, the management of inequalities and the environment. This is how, for several years, we have been talking about “sustainable development” or “green transition”.
These concepts make use of “soft” transition tools, such as eco-taxation, for example, which put forward major investments in innovative technologies and make it possible to continue to derive economic benefits from natural resources while attempting to minimize damage to them. […]
However, in light of the acute deterioration of the climate, it is not a ‘soft’ transition that we need, but a real ‘transformation’. All fair, ecological and profitable initiatives must be mobilized, but, unfortunately, these tools do not transform the intrinsic structure of our economy based on short-term growth. With the imperative requirement of the IPCC to cap CO emissions2 in 2025, the solutions that we must consider must be more incisive and more concrete.
About the authors:
Francois Delormeteacher in the Department of Economics at the University of Sherbrooke
Clarisse Thomas, junior economist at François Delorme Consultation inc. and master’s student in environmental management at the University of Sherbrooke
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.