The Prime Minister is listening -- but pressure needs to keep mounting.
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2015 11:30
- Written by editor
Friends,
About two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was adamant about going to the upcoming Paris Climate Summit -- the most important international climate meeting of the decade -- with the Harper government’s plan for climate action in-hand.
Since then, however, public pressure has forced the Prime Minister in a different direction. Last week, Environment & Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna announced that the Harper government’s plan would merely serve as a baseline, and that the Liberal government would strive to build upon it at the Paris Climate Summit. Soon afterward, Prime Minister Trudeau announced that he will also meet with the provincial premiers a week before the big summit, in order to strengthen Canada’s position at the negotiations (he'd previously planned to meet with them months after the summit was over).
What changed between then and now? Well, a wave of people power swept right across the Prime Minister’s... doorstep, with hundreds of people staging sit-ins outside his residence. Every day for Prime Minister Trudeau’s first four days in office, we showed up on his doorstep to deliver gifts and messages reminding him that he needs to take real action on climate change. Every night, we showed up in the news, and journalists started asking tough questions about whether this new government will walk its talk on climate.
These actions have helped to open the door for real climate action -- but we can’t stop there. While it’s a big first step that the government has opened up to changing their emissions reduction targets, they’ve still been vocal about their support for tar sands expansion projects like Energy East.
This just means that we need to keep mounting the pressure and keep pushing this government. We need to make it clear that the sort of climate action we want and need -- and that this government talks about -- is absolutely incompatible with expanding the tar sands.
On November 28-29th, we have a chance to keep this pressure mounting, as actions and mobilizations take place around the world as part of the Global Climate March. There are actions planned across Canada, including a mass march and rally in Ottawa called 100% Possible.
Climate Welcome was just the beginning. We’re working on a plan to hold Prime Minister Trudeau and his government accountable to real climate action, and to freeze tar sands expansion in Canada. We’ll be in touch with more details soon, and we hope you join the mobilization on November 28-29th.
In solidarity,
Cam & the 350 Canada team
350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and r38
