The Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC) s a non-partisan campaign promoting awareness on the climate crisis and environmental issues. The campaign is based on our 12-point Climate Action Plan, which has 253 signatory groups and 404 signatory individuals. To join OCEC, sign on as a group or as an individual.

Following news on OCEC, Signatory Actions and Upcoming Events, we focus on the fourth action of OCEC’s 12-point Climate Action Plan. We scour the news to answer the question Why are we failing to cut emissions? We illustrate the power of multinational corporate and ruling political elites, particularly in Ontario, to maintain existing fossil fuel use and how the oil and gas industry skews the narrative using greenwashing and other tactics. 

The government of Ontario is pushing ahead with its plans to ignore renewables and instead expand gas-fired electricity at the great expense of public health and climate. They claim this expansion is required to meet Ontario’s near future electricity demands, especially due to increased electrification (e.g., EVs) and the gradual retirement of aging nuclear facilities. The fact that each municipality must approve the expansion in their own area presents an opportunity to block these foolhardy proposals.

The first gas plant expansion gained approval in February from Windsor City Council. OCEC would like to highlight the important work of members of the Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario in opposing increasing reliance on gas plants. Despite their submission and those of many other organizations, Windsor City Council still voted in favour of Capital Power’s application to add two more gas-fired turbines to their East Windsor facility. Read CEA's comment objecting to this assault on climate and municipal climate accountability.

OCEC is working on a fully collaborative OCEC strategic campaign as part of a province-wide anti-gas alliance, spearheaded by OCAA, Clean Air Partnership and Environmental Defence. We have organized the April 5th Beyond Gas Advocacy Workshop to provide hands-on virtual training for Ontarians to take action against Ontario's gas plant expansion plans. This will be followed by a public informational webinar with Mark Jacobson on April 18th to educate and inspire both general public and policy-makers on the real, reliable, cheaper, and safer renewable energy alternatives to gas-fired electricity. To support the campaign we are developing a concise Toolkit series including a Backgrounder, Informational Toolkit and Action Toolkit for widespread amplification. Expanded resources will be posted on the OCEC website and there will be a corresponding social media campaign. OCEC will do outreach to engage its Group Signatories, Individual Signatories and 2022 Municipal Election pro-climate candidates who signed the OCEC climate pledge. We are planning non-partisan MPP/municipal Lobby Days in May using the campaign strategies rolled out through April. Together, OCEC members can exert significant pressure for positive change.

Please share the following public workshop and webinar information widely and invite your own MPPs and municipal councillors to attend as an important event for policy-makers - let's get a huge turnout to oppose gas expansion and secure a clean energy grid to secure our future! 

April 5, 2023, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

The Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, and Citizens' Climate Lobby Ontario invite you to be part of a non-partisan advocacy effort aimed at stopping the expansion of existing gas plants in Ontario. This will be our kick-off event for participants (or those considering participation). We are aiming to set up meetings with MPPs in May, from roughly May 8 to May 26. We invite concerned citizens from across the province to join in this workshop, even if you're not sure you'll engage your MPP or Councillor.

April 18th, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
An energizing evening with celebrated Stanford energy researcher and author Dr Mark Z. Jacobson (author, “No Miracles Needed”) and local experts Jack Gibbons (Ontario Clean Air Alliance) and Gaby Kalapos (Climate Caucus and Ontario Clean Air Partnership), moderated by Canadian health journalist Avis Favaro. Learn all you need to know and be inspired by the existing affordable green renewable solutions that can carry us reliably and safely beyond the Government of Ontario plan to expand fossil gas-fired electricity during a climate crisis into a sustainable future for all. View this excellent video with Mark Jacobson to spark your interest in attending.

The Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF). Briefing note for Halton Hills Councillors urging them to “get the full picture before considering gas plant expansion”.

The Ontario Clean Air Alliance has produced a fact sheet on How Ontario Can Avoid New Gas Plants and Lower Electricity Costs, which provides alternative solutions that would avoid the need for gas peaker plants. 

Environmental Defence. Model preemptive resolution for councilors and tips on how to lobby using it.

a) No shortage of available land in Ontario

A new report prepared by Registered Professional Planner Kevin Eby for the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario (OLA) finds that no additional farms, forests or protected Greenbelt areas are needed to meet the provincial government’s goal of building 1.5 million homes in Ontario by 2031. The report has another interesting finding: demand for low-density housing is significantly below the expectations of government models, which are based almost entirely on historical patterns. Implementation of other government actions such as the Ontario Growth Plan affects the accuracy of historical projections. For example, not even half of the percentage of single and semi-detached units forecast annually from 2020 to 2041 have been built in the City of Waterloo in any time period since 2009. Read a summary of the OLA report prepared by Environmental Defence.

b) Increased financial risk for municipal appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal

One of our readers alerted us that one of the recent changes included in Bill 23 is to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) Act, which now allow the OLT to assign costs of an appeal to the losing party, as shown in Article 20 of this unofficial blackline prepared by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. This additional financial risk for the municipality will have a chilling effect on municipal councils, within a system that is already tilted heavily in favour of developers and industry. 

c)  Federal Impact Assessment for Rouge Park
In response to hundreds of requests over the last few months from Ontarians, Stephen Guilbeault has asked for a Federal Impact Assessment of the cumulative effects of greenbelt development on Rouge National Urban Park. Our thanks to those of you who took action. 

If you have an action you want to share, please send a brief description of it to
OCECnews@gmail.com

Atomic Accomplice: How Canada Deals in Deadly Deceit
Wednesday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.
Join author Paul McKay and colleagues for a conversation about the 2023 edition of Atomic Accomplice. This edition details how attempts to replace fossil fuel use with atomic energy will fractionally cut carbon emissions – but inevitably magnify the creation of plutonium, a nuclear bomb component.

Saturday, April 1, 2023

The campaign involving Decolonial Solidarity, Leadnow, SCAN! and other signatories and environmental advocates continues with more protests across Canada and Ontario just days before RBC’s annual general meeting in Saskatoon on April 5th. 

The Campaign has 3 key messages: 

1. RBC Stop Funding Fossil Fuels and Pipelines
2. RBC Stop Violating Indigenous Rights
3. Support Indigenous Water Protectors & Land Defenders

Join actions across so-called Canada or organize a protest  in your community at any RBC branch on April 1st to send energy to the frontlines! Wet'suwet'en land defenders are mobilizing for the RBC AGM on April 5th.

Wet'suwet'en Solidarity Fossil Fools Day Rally - Toronto
Saturday, April 1, 11:00  a.m. 
Royal Bank Plaza (southwest corner of Wellington and Bay)
RSVP

Organizing Meeting for Council of Canadians Campaign for a Just Transition
Monday, April 17, 7:00 pm. on zoom.

The Council of Canadians invites you to a meeting among Toronto residents interested in working to ensure a just transition for workers and communities. At this meeting, you will learn more about the campaign, meet other people passionate about climate justice and our future, and plan to take action!
Register 

The theme of this newsletter is the fourth action of OCEC’s 12-point Climate Action Plan. We consider three aspects of our current situation: emissions, renewables and the obstacles we face as we work toward winding down fossil fuels industries.

For each of these three sections, a summary of the main points is provided, with a “read more” link for further information.

a) Low carbon energy sources
Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), an accounting firm, has analyzed global progress (or lack thereof) in reducing the carbon intensity (the amount of fossil energy used per unit of GDP) achieved since 2000 that would be required to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Their results are given in an informative graph, with the conclusion that a 77% reduction in carbon intensity is required this decade to limit warming to 1.5º. 

b) Inequality Matters 
While most GHG emissions are systemic - due to the dependence of modern economies on the production and use of fossil energy - individual consumption matters, too.

c) An Emissions Cap For The Canadian Oil and Gas Industry 
The oil and gas industry is (obviously) the country’s largest emitting sector, and unlike most other heavy industry sectors, such as steel and cement, its emissions are not declining. An emissions cap for the sector is crucial for meeting 2030 and 2050 reductions targets and its success will depend largely on two things: how it’s designed and the speed at which it is implemented. 

d) Ontario Emissions Update
As for Ontario, the increased reliance on gas-fired power being promoted by the Progressive Conservative government will cause us to lose almost half the emissions reductions we gained by closing coal fired electricity production. 

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) just announced that Canada’s wind and solar energy sectors grew by 10.5% in 2022. Western Canada accounted for 98% of Canada’s total growth in renewables in 2022. Bi-directional EV chargers are one of the major solutions Ontario Clean Air Alliance sees as key to meet increasing demand for electricity as we transition from fossil fuels. 

So why has there been so little progress?

Through a vast distribution and service pipeline network, Enbridge Gas Inc., the largest gas utility in North America, delivers oil and natural gas to Ontario from Alberta, Saskatchewan and the United States. Although committed to ‘net zero by 2050’, Enbridge has major growth plans in Ontario. 

Webs of Persuasion - Advertising, Lobbying and Greenwashing

The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld in a 1986 essay about the hotel industry's practice of placing notices in bedrooms promoting reuse of towels to "save the environment".  It’s common in advertising when industries maintain that their consumer products or services are essential to a good life. Even children are targeted.

Now greenwashing by the oil and gas industries is being called out. 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), March 20, 2023
AR6 Synthesis Report
This latest IPPC report says the planet is likely to reach 1.5 C of warming (since preindustrial times) sometime in the 2030s. Right now, the planet is estimated to have warmed between 1.1 C and 1.3. C, and the consequences are already clear, from more deadly wildfires, severe weather events, flooding and droughts. Vulnerable people in developing countries are  disproportionately affected by climate change. The report makes it clear that we need to reduce carbon emissions at lightning speed, and that the tools to stop catastrophic climate change are in our hands, and would deliver many co-benefits, especially for air quality and health. Read the press release and the commentary in The Conversation. 

Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway, 2023.  The Big Myth. How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Here’s a YouTube video with the authors: The Case Against Market Fundamentalism. 

Klein, Naomi, 2007.  The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Vintage.  Even more relevant in this era of climate crisis.   

The Energy Mix. Fake it ‘Til You Make It Won’t Cut It with Climate.
Mitchell Beer’s recent editorial is an informed take on greenwashing. 

Ontario Federation of Labour. Ford Tracker
This website follows the impacts of cuts on labour across all sectors. Interested OCEC signatories might want to keep an eye on it.   

Climate Access. Phase Out Fossil Fuels and Fast Track Clean Energy. Webinar on public awareness strategies for the climate emergency.  Webinar recording Slide deck.

Neighbours United. Deep Canvassing Increases Support for Climate Change Action in Rural British Columbia: Case Study

The Canadian government is a world leader in pretending to be a world leader in environmentalism. Imagine where we’d be if the funds being spent on the Trans Mountain Pipeline had been put into renewables!

For a satirical take, watch Canadian Government Ad™: Cleaning up the Oil Sands

GREAT NEWS ACTUALLY:  A High Seas Treaty!!!  After over a decade of negotiations agreement has been reached among 193 UN members to protect the high seas - the two-thirds of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction.  Ocean ecosystems are critical for all life on earth, and this new UN Treaty will enable the creation of Marine Protected Areas - 30% by 2030. This target was set to stave off the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity collapse during the UN biodiversity conference, COP15, held in Montreal in December. It should be noted that deep sea mining is exempt from the treaty, which could undermine protection for the seabed. 

Global clean energy investing tops US$1 trillion for first time ever
From Corporate Knights: According to a recent report from BloombergNEF (BNEF), global investment in the low-carbon energy transition totalled a record US$1.11 trillion in 2022 – up 31% in a year. Better still, for the first time, global investment in green energy technologies has reached parity with the total capital deployed to produce new fossil fuels. According to BNEF, “Investment in clean energy technologies is on the brink of overtaking fossil fuel investments and won’t look back.”

If you're looking for the good news in the US energy transition, this is it. According to the Sustainable Energy in America 2023 Fact Book, the “clean energy transition is now hard-wired into the U.S. economy”, as a large preponderance of the new generating capacity being added to the grid is from renewables.  The challenge now is to “triple that rate of investment in electric generating capacity to be able to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

Six Pacific countries call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Fiji, Tonga, Niue, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands have jointly written the Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific. They are leading the creation of a global alliance to negotiate a new Treaty to govern the end to fossil fuel expansion, equitable phase-out of fossil fuels, and a global just transition.