Islanders working on ideas for Canadian Green New Deal

A group of Islanders is taking part in a national campaign to put climate change on the agenda during the upcoming federal election campaign.

The Pact for a Green New Deal seeks ways to halve Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in the next 11 years. This is based on the recent United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report assessing climate change science.

The Canadian initiative is gathering ideas from around the country and will include academic and Indigenous voices.

"We have to have some revolutionary ideas to combat climate change in the timeframe that we have left and nobody can be left behind," said Melissa Mullen, co-host of a recent event on P.E.I. to discuss Island-focused issues and solutions.

"Here we are, just regular everyday farmers trying to figure out what more can we do."

Mullen said it's important to have those difficult discussions on climate change.

"There's tending to be an atmosphere where nobody wants to talk about climate change because people are polarized about it or people are frightened and they don't want to talk about it," Mullen said.

"We all have to do something about it and until we can have conversations, decent conversations, about this and sort of feel like we're all in the same boat and we all need to do more then not much is going to happen."

Mullen says the ideas discussed on P.E.I. will be shared with the national group.

A larger report is expected to be released later this month.

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