Canada must put a price on carbon to curb warming, says environmental economist
There are a few reasons why many feel optimistic about this Paris conference. There's a feeling of goodwill and an unprecedented sense among world leaders that time is running out to stave off the worst of climate change.
Most of the world's nations have submitted their own voluntary pledges for emissions reductions to the UN, even if they're not legally binding.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that good intentions will not get the world to two degrees. They could lead to three degrees of warming, and that's not good enough, according to the science.
Gordon McBean is one of Canada's most distinguished climate change experts. He's a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at Western University and also the President of the International Council for Science and the Chair for Policy at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
So you have a target - two degrees. You know that to hit that target, carbon emissions have to come down. Way down. And fast. You have more than 150 countries that have set what are called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions — otherwise known as voluntary emissions targets. Now all you have to do is get almost 200 countries with wildly varying levels of commitment to sign the same agreement to reach that common goal of two degrees.
Jutta Brunnee is a Professor of Law and the Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law at the University of Toronto. She's also the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. We reached her in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Developing nations may not be the biggest contributors to climate change, but many are feeling its impact already. Some of the most vulnerable parts of the world are in Asia.
"Bangladesh is a land of natural disaster. We had cyclones and storm surges. The storm surge height was normally between two metres to three metres, maybe once in 15 years we would have a five-metre high storm surge... Now we are in the process of raising dykes to 6.5 metre."- Ainun Nishat, professor emeritus at Brac University with the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research
Last Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada will contribute $2.65 billion over five years to assist developing nations in making the transition to low-carbon economies. But the question still remains: what will Canada do to make its own transition to a low-carbon economy when it's spent the past decade pinning its economic future on being a fossil fuel powerhouse.
Mark Jaccard is an Environmental economist in the School of Environment and Resource Management, and the director of the Energy and Materials Research Group at Simon Fraser University. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the co-author of "Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge."
What are you watching for in these Paris talks? What do you want Canada to do to help reach that target of 2 degrees?
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This segment was produced by CBC's Chris Wodskou.
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