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What We Heard

The Forum goals were to inform the development of a forward climate policy agenda for Canada and the next research agenda for the NRTEE in this area. We heard enough to do both. There were remarkable areas of consensus and accord. And, expectedly, there were some points of departure. But this diverse and informed group of leading Canadians was unanimous in expressing the importance of climate change to Canada’s future.

This section first identifies “what we heard” followed by “what we recommend”. By noting “what we will do” the Round Table acknowledges its role and the part it has to play.

These are the main messages we heard:

Climate change is real. Our country needs to get more serious and engaged in accepting this reality and prepare ourselves to deal with it.

There is an urgent need to act decisively. Difficult, but necessary, decisions have been put off for too long.

Strong government leadership and policy decisiveness on climate change has been lacking. This has been a prominent barrier to actions that are needed, leaving people uncertain as to ultimate direction and goals and preventing the development of a public policy consensus on how to move forward.

Canada is lacking a unified vision for climate policy. From a national sustainable energy strategy that integrates energy resource and climate issues to water management and natural resource sector sustainability,
there is a need for greater cohesion and integration in policy approaches across governments and sectors.

A market-wide price signal on carbon is an integral part of any long-term climate change solution. A carbon price signal is an essential step in fostering the development and deployment of low carbon technology and changing business and consumer behaviour. Such a step will affect parts of our economy, consumers and regions, but should be implemented.

Mitigation and adaptation go together. Measures to reduce future carbon emissions are clearly required but adaptation measures are equally necessary to deal with the effects of climate change already apparent or expected due to emissions now in the atmosphere.

The public needs to be mobilized on climate change issues. Encouraging governments to act will be easier if the public better understands the need for climate action, what effects it is having and will have, and how they are implicated in the solutions.

We need to change how we talk about climate change. There is a need for new terminology that creates a stronger sense of urgency and focus amongst Canadians for addressing climate change.

Climate change is both an environmental and an economic issue. We need to consider equally the environmental and economic implications together of addressing climate change, particularly with our major trading partners such as the U.S.

Canada’s current governance structures are inadequate to the task of developing and implementing long-term climate policy. Our governments don’t coordinate or collaborate enough across jurisdictions and sectors. We need a more cohesive response and leadership role by all levels of government.

Key messages that emerged from each of the round table themes include:

Ecosystem Security

• Canada needs a national vision for managing its ecosystems to ensure different levels of government are working in concert. Ecosystems have no regard for jurisdictional boundaries. Environmental stewardship is a joint responsibility.
• Water sustainability—not just for ecosystem security but also for energy and natural resource sectors—is a priority concern. It touches virtually all ecosystems, is being degraded by unsustainable practices, and is expected to be further pressured by climate change.
• An integrated framework applied to ecosystems-based regulation for sustainable development will ensure consideration of both the environment and the economy in policy solutions from the outset.

Energy Economy Security

• Given the integrated nature of climate policy across our energy economy, we need a sustainable energy strategy that integrates environmental, economic and natural resource concerns.
• Technology, innovation, and R&D are essential to addressing climate change.
• The issue of energy use by Canadians, including conservation and investment in renewable energy, goes hand-in-hand with the issue of pricing carbon.

Arctic Security

• The Canadian Arctic is at risk. Irreversible climate changes are already apparent in this fragile ecosystem. But we have only partial knowledge of what climate change is doing to the North and what this means for policy responses to issues of melting
  sea ice, sovereignty, resource development, and Northern peoples and communities.
• Arctic melting has clear international implications. A combination of unresolved sovereignty issues and the promise of newly accessible natural resources will most likely lead to territorial disputes.
• Canada’s Arctic peoples and communities are exposed and at risk to climate change and need to be directly implicated in assessing risks, developing and implementing solutions.

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