Report calls for national clean energy centre
Deborah Harford, Adaptation to Climate Change Team, 604.671.2449; adapt@sfu.ca (Contact Deborah to schedule an interview with Bruce Sampson.)
Dixon Tam, SFU Media Relations, 778.782.8742; dixon_tam@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) is calling on Canada to create a national centre for sustainable energy solutions.
The centre would build on environmental leadership already underway. It would also marshal the venture capital industry, utilities, all orders of government, business, and post-secondary resources to fund and promote resilient, sustainable clean energy technology development and commercialization.
This is a key recommendation from the latest ACT report called Climate Change Adaptation and the Low Carbon Economy. The paper is co-authored by Bruce Sampson, former chair of the International Centre for Sustainable Cities and former VP of sustainability for B.C. Hydro, and Linsay Martens, an SFU public policy program grad.
“We must take the lead in the transition to sustainable energy in this country and the timing is critical,” says Sampson. “Already, 56 oil-producing countries have reached a peak in their oil production. That single fact alone should underscore the urgency of the need for alternatives.”
The report outlines three major inter-connected challenges:
- Energy Challenge – the world’s foremost source of easily accessible, cheap energy is depleting
- Climate Change Challenge – our greenhouse gas emissions are destabilizing the climate and we need to dramatically reduce these emissions as well as prepare for the impacts
- Ecosystems Challenge – we are running a substantial ecological deficit; if global population and consumption trends continue, we’ll need the equivalent of two planet Earths by at least 2050.
Canada is a key player in this scenario. According to ACT, Canada has the fourth highest ecological footprint in the world and is one of its biggest consumers – but it also has the resources to apply to the problem. B.C. is an excellent example as a pioneer in the development of clean energy and the only jurisdiction in Canada with a carbon tax.
Along with the call for a national clean energy centre, the report identifies 21 recommendations focusing on governance, energy conservation and a shift to renewable energy, adaptation to climate change, and insurance – for example, developing a distance-based vehicle insurance program.
This is the third report in ACT’s series on adapting to climate change across the spectrum – the first two were on protecting biodiversity on British Columbia, and the need to adapt to increasingly extreme weather events driven by climate change. Future topics include water conservation, population health, sea-level rise, and food security.
Governments, foundations, and industry fund the ACT series. Sponsors for this report include Plutonic Power, B.C. Hydro, Pacific Institute for Climate Solution (PICS), and core ACT sponsor, Zurich Financial Services. “Zurich achieves its goal of becoming the best global insurance company partly through involvement in cutting-edge research and policy development such as ACT’s work,” says Lindene Patton, Zurich’s chief climate products officer.
“It is important to seek win-win approaches that reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts and changing energy supplies, and limit our impacts on the system,” says Deborah Harford, ACT’s executive director. “This report frames the transition to a low carbon economy in the context of these interconnected challenges.”For the full report, please go to www.sfu.ca/act
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