By Dan Rubinstein
To ward off the worst impacts of climate change, Canada has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. That means in less than three decades the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) being released into the atmosphere from all sources of emissions — buildings, industry, transportation and so forth — must be no greater than the GHGs being removed.
The challenge is that almost everything we do to heat, cool and power our society and feed people emits greenhouse gasses. What we need is a fundamental transformation of how we live in this world.
According to Carleton University researcher James Meadowcroft, this is not an unrealistic goal — as long as government, business and civil society organizations work together, across sectors and regions.
The former is crucial because cutting emissions must happen differently in every sector; reforming transportation, for example, isn’t the same as changing agriculture. Regionality matters because Canada is so vast and geographically diverse.
James Meadowcroft, SPPA Professor
Read full story on Carleton’s Challenge What’s Possible website.