Canada is currently facing two global crises, and only one is showing signs of winding down.
While COVID-19 continues to have negative and unprecedented effects on our health and our economy, new vaccines represent a welcome light at the end of the tunnel.
Climate change also continues to damage our health and our economy, along with our ecosystems, and the worst is still to come.
Recently, the situation actually worsened, despite the lockdown in many parts of the country. New data from the International Energy Agency shows that in December 2020, energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were actually two per cent higher than the year before the COVID crisis.
No vaccine can put an end to the climate crisis, but one solution where Canada has the opportunity to be a global leader is in powering electric vehicles with Canada’s abundant renewable energy resources.
On April 22, the government of Canada announced a new GHG reduction target to surpass its Paris Accord target for 2030 and put it on the path to achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.
But how will we get there?
Read the web version of the op-ed here or the pdf here.