Saskatchewan advocates reflect on dire UN climate panel report

Saskatchewan advocates are raising alarms about irreversible climate impacts on the heels of a recent UN report.

The UN climate panel sounded a dire warning earlier this week.

The panel says the world is in danger of runaway global warming and that humans are to blame.

UN Secretary General António Guterres urged an immediate end to coal energy and other high-polluting fossil fuels.

Marla Orenstein is with the Canada West Foundation. She said a lot of preparation must be done before society can cut off fossil fuels.

"This report is talking about the need for an immediate end, but at the same time we always recognize that the pivot takes some time," she said. "It's not really possible for any government to come and say as of Monday there's going to be no more natural gas. It simply wouldn't be possible."

Orenstein said huge strides have already been made and Canada has drastically reduced consumption. The problem is giant export markets where there is a huge demand and lots of money to be made.

Peter Prebble is a board member of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society. Unlike Orenstein, he does not believe the province is doing a good job of producing domestic energy in an environmentally friendly way.

"More than 40 per cent of our electricity is coming from conventional coal fired power plants, which the intergovernmental panel on climate change has been recommending for years need to be phased out,'' he said. "Provinces like Ontario have done that, the United Kingdom has done that. We are moving very slowly in this regard."

In a statement, Saskatchewan's Environment Minister Warren Kaeding said Saskatchewan is taking measures to reduce emissions.

They include reducing emissions from electricity generation by 50 per cent by 2030 and reducing the emissions intensity of upstream oil and gas by 15 per cent.