By Seth Klein

The climate mobilization in Canada has yet to feel like a grand societal undertaking. Among the bold initiatives that would send such a signal — an audacious Youth Climate Corps. As the world has begun to confront the climate crisis, the last few years have seen a burgeoning of youth leadership. As in WWII, youth are once again mobilizing to secure our collective future. But so far, our governments have failed to create public programs to accept and deploy their energies and talents. A new generation of young people needs a way to meet this moment.

By Seth Klein

The country’s leading “natural” gas companies seek to impede electrification. Among the many barriers we face to a genuine climate emergency plan is a fossil fuel industry that has insidiously used its economic and political power to stall meaningful action. In this piece, I add into evidence some recent examples of the “natural” gas industry making mischief with needed climate action. Fuel-switching our buildings to electricity — mainly by means of high-efficiency electric heat pumps and induction electric stoves ­— represents a vital and urgent piece of decarbonizing our society and driving down GHG emissions. But natural gas utilities are employing a bag of tricks to slow the move to electrify our buildings.

By Anjali Appadurai and Jens Wieting

New climate data and commitments shared by other nations during the Earth Day Climate Summit in April told a promising story: Growing numbers of countries and regions around the world are making progress, reducing pollution and willing to do what is necessary to address the intersecting crises of climate, biodiversity and Covid-19. Unfortunately, Canada and British Columbia are not yet part of this group.

News

You might be pleased to know that, after one of Seth’s recent webinars, a woman in Kingston named Mary Jane Philp decided to purchase 338 copies of A Good War and have it delivered it to every Member of Parliament in Canada. You can see more about what she did here. As MJ wrote in her cover note to all MPs, “We need brave and visionary leadership like our lives depend on it – because they do.”

By Seth Klein

After a year in which the pandemic stalled progress on climate mobilization, momentum seems once again to be picking up. The Supreme Court has said the federal government can and should lead. National governments, including Canada’s, are ramping up their greenhouse gas reduction targets. It feels like climate might again surface as a central issue in the next federal election.

Yet a harrowing gap remains between what science says is required and the policy and budgetary commitments we’ve seen so far.

By Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood & Clay Duncalfe

The much-anticipated 2021 federal budget was presented this week with a historic investment in a national child care program and the extension of COVID-19 support programs.

Although climate change and a green economy didn’t make the headlines, the budget allocated a significant amount of money toward protecting the environment and investing in a cleaner economy—$41 billion in total, by our count.

By Seth Klein
Next week, U.S. President Joe Biden will be hosting a climate summit, to which he has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. My, how the tables have turned.

Seven years ago, Trudeau was the golden new arrival on the global scene, an embodiment of hope at home and abroad, particularly with respect to the defining challenge of our time — the climate emergency. In the Trump era, Trudeau seemed a beacon of climate sanity and action (at least in the North American context). But today, the U.S. is catapulting ahead of Canada, with Biden seizing the mantle of exciting climate leadership, while Trudeau’s record appears lacklustre and tepid in comparison.

By Seth Klein

Two years ago, with the right reunited and back in government in Alberta, led by a triumphant Jason Kenney, it seemed hard to imagine the Alberta NDP returning to government any time soon. But in a stunning turnaround, the prospect of Rachel Notley’s NDP being re-elected in 2023 no longer seems at all far-fetched.

While most Canadian premiers have seen a rise in their popularity during the pandemic, Kenney’s has plummeted, with his approval ratings currently the third lowest among Canada’s premiers. As of late 2020, the Alberta NDP had surpassed Kenney’s United Conservative Party in opinion polls. More recently, the NDP has secured a commanding lead.

By Cam Fenton, Canada Team Lead for 350.org

Last week, President Joe Biden signed sweeping executive orders on climate change. As expected, the orders reversed a wide range of Trump-era environmental rollbacks, but they didn’t stop there. In both symbol and substance, Biden’s early climate actions have positioned him to potentially emerge as one of the world’s most ambitious political leaders when it comes to climate change. And, it put Canada in a difficult situation, showing just how wide the gap is between what we need to do and what Justin Trudeau is actually doing.

By Seth Klein

On November 19, Justin Trudeau’s federal government tabled its long-awaited bill seeking to embed new greenhouse gas reduction targets into law. But sadly, Bill C-12, dubbed the “Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act,” provides virtually nothing in the way of robust accountability. In its current form it is, in short, a stunning disappointment and desperately in need of amendments to make the bill worthwhile. This is a moment for the NDP and BQ to use the powers and influence this minority Parliament affords them to demand improvements to C-12. And Liberal MPs who ran on climate need to make their voices heard. They need to exercise their political muscle, as this bill in its current state fails to reflect the urgency of the climate emergency. And all of us who want real climate accountability need to make sure all MPs know how we feel.

By Seth Klein

Since releasing my book, I have frequently been asked, “How do you know when a government gets the emergency?” Here are my four markers for when you know that a government has shifted into emergency mode:

1) It spends what it takes to win;

2) It creates new economic institutions to get the job done;

3) It shifts from voluntary and incentive-based policies to mandatory measures;

4) It tells the truth about the severity of the crisis and communicates a sense of urgency about the measures necessary to combat i

By Seth Klein

Remembrance Day is an occasion to reflect on the lessons and sacrifices of past struggles. Today, as we prepare to tackle our generation’s greatest threat – the climate emergency – Canada’s mobilization to confront fascism 80 years ago has valuable lessons to offer. For all of us who wrestle with the enormity of the climate crisis, our Second World War experience offers a helpful — and indeed hopeful — reminder that we have done this before.

By Seth Klein

Clean BC is, quite likely, the most aggressive and comprehensive provincial or federal climate plan in Canada. And yet, sadly, it does not constitute a real climate emergency plan. This piece outlines what one would expect to see in a true climate emergency plan. If our current leaders believe we face a climate emergency, then they need to act and speak like it’s a damn emergency. We need them to name it, speak continually about it, and rally us at every turn. Because that’s what you do in a crisis.

By Seth Klein

The more a bold and transformative climate plan is seen as linked to an ambitious plan to tackle inequality, economic insecurity, poverty and job creation, the more likely people are to support it.

By Seth Klein

As the young people in our society come to the end of a school year unlike any before, and those in their teens and early 20s in particular wrestle with what the coming year or two will look like, Canada’s Second World War story has some useful guidance to offer. In the Second World War, over one million Canadians enlisted for military service, a remarkable level of participation, particularly given what those who signed up were prepared to sacrifice. Of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who went to fight overseas, from all corners of the country and many ethnic backgrounds, the overriding characteristic most had in common was their youth. The good news for today is that the crises we must confront call upon us to help and to heal – both society and the planet – rather than to fight and kill.

By Seth Klein

Premiers Jason Kenney and Scott Moe want to re-open equalization. It’s one of the prairie premiers’ core demands for a “new deal” with Canada. But that’s super messy. And besides, the equalization formula isn’t the problem; it’s more or less operating as intended, helping to ensure all provinces have equivalent capacity to fund similar levels of public services. Alberta has plenty of revenue capacity to fund its public programs. As the latest Alberta budget itself boasts, if Alberta taxed individuals and corporations at rates comparable to other provinces, it would have “at least $13.4 billion more in taxes.”

By Seth Klein

Hey, small-c conservative voter, can we talk? You, who take pride in your country and are committed to protecting your children and grandchildren. You, who have faith in our innovative capacity. You, who treasure good governance and care about national security. Yeah, you.

By Seth Klein

Last month, as part of the research for a book I am writing on mobilizing Canada for the climate emergency, I commissioned an extensive national public opinion poll from Abacus Data.* The full results of the poll can be found on the Abacus website here. I share highlights and my analysis below. Big picture: the results are hopeful and indicate a high level of support for bold and ambitious climate action. Canadians support systemic solutions that go well beyond what our governments have so far been willing to undertake