Canada Missing Opportunities to Save Lives and Create Jobs with Weak Climate Protection Targets

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

Ottawa, Canada. June 3, 2015. Analysis by the New Climate Institute shows that Canada’s proposed target of 30 percent reductions in greenhouse gases below 2005 by 2030 robs the country of important co-benefits relating to reduced oil imports, lives saved from lower air pollution, and jobs created from growing the renewable energy sector. The report compares the potential co-benefits of Canada’s proposed climate protection target to a scenario consistent with keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The results show that shifting to a 100% renewable energy system (see report and methodology attached) by 2050 results in cuts in carbon pollution that could:

• Reduce fossil fuel dependency by an additional 21 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent), compared to Canada’s target impact of 8 Mtoe¹ for a total reduction in fossil fuel dependency of 29 Mtoe. Of that amount, 22 Mtoe, or 76% results from lower fuel consumption in the transportation sector potentially saving consumers almost $30 billion dollars.²
• Prevent 700 premature deaths compared to Canada’s target impact of saving 100 premature deaths for a total health benefit of 800 lives saved, a 600% increase.
• Create approximately 5,000 additional jobs in the domestic renewable energy sector, a 60% increase over the 3,000 jobs predicted under Canada’s target scenario (a total of 8,000 jobs).

“Canada’s failure to take its climate protection responsibilities seriously will hurt Canadians in the long-run as our economy remains over-reliant on dirty oil, as our air remains more polluted than it needs to be, and because sustainable jobs in the renewable energy sector were not created,” says Louise Comeau, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada.

For more information contact:
Louise Comeau
lcomeau@climateactionnetwork.ca
1-506-238-0355

1. Mtoe: a ton of oil equivalent is a unit of energy defined as the amount of energy released by burning one ton of crude oil. 1 toe = 7.14 barrels of oil equivalent or 1,135 litres of fuel (159 liters to a barrel of oil). https://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-energy-from-toe-toboe. html
2. 22 Mtoe converts to 157 million barrels of oil equivalent. There are 159 liters in a barrel. Assuming $1.20/litre = $29 billion. https://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-energy-from-Mtoe-to-boe.html?val=22