New IPCC report | Quebec and Ottawa “are far from ready”

The climate crisis will hit the finances of Quebec and Canada hard if the governments do not prepare for it more, warns Équiterre in the wake of the new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published Monday.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

“The costs of slow and half-hearted climate action will far outweigh the costs of quick and decisive action,” she said in a statement.

With the approach of the tabling of the provincial and federal budgets, it is “very disturbing to note to what extent the climate crisis is, at best, relegated to the background of the discussions and, at worst, completely absent from the discourse”, says Émile Boisseau. -Bouvier, climate policy analyst for the Quebec environmental organization.

The IPCC report “gives shivers down the spine” by showing the impacts of the crisis and the lack of preparation of governments and society, says Patrick Bonin, head of the climate-energy campaign at Greenpeace Canada, in a press release.

“This report should serve as a shock absorber for all governments that need to implement unprecedented systemic change,” he says, noting that it starts with the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and far more ambitious climate action.

Ottawa is busy, says Steven Guilbeault

The Canadian government “stands ready” to take bold action on climate mitigation and adaptation, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement.

Ottawa will release its “first-ever emissions reduction plan” at the end of March, under recently passed carbon neutrality legislation, and launch Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy in the fall, minister says .

Meanwhile, the Canadian government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on coping with disasters, including floods and wildfires, he adds.

“Inaction on climate mitigation and adaptation will have repercussions on food systems, trade and immigration, not only in Canada, but around the world,” said Steven Guilbeault, recalling that the floods and the wildfires that hit Western Canada last year illustrate the tangible impacts of the climate crisis.

Haro on fossil fuels

The world must wean itself from its dependence on fossil fuels, warned during the presentation of the IPCC report the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) António Guterres.

“The gas and oil giants have been warned,” he said. You cannot pretend to be green while your plans and projects undermine the 2050 carbon neutral goal.”

The world’s energy supply is failing, he added, recalling that greenhouse gas emissions are on track to increase by 14% by 2030, when they must instead be reduced by 45%.

“There is an emergency, we are heading towards a disaster,” said Inger Andersen, director general of the United Nations Environment Program and deputy secretary general of the United Nations.

“We need large-scale ecosystem restoration, from oceans to mountain peaks,” she said, calling for nature to work.

“Nature can save us,” she said. But only if we save her first. »