A coalition of environmental groups and Sudbury MPP Jamie West are co-hosting a Queen’s Park breakfast next week, asking the provincial government to pause the expansion of methane-powered electricity in Ontario.
The coalition includes the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Climate Fast, For Our Grandchildren, and the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign. The breakfast will take place in the Queen’s Park Dining Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 26 from 7:30 to 9 a.m.
The co-hosts hope to offer information from reports by RBC Climate Action Institute, Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, and the Sustainability Solutions Group they say shows an increase in methane-powered electricity (also known as natural gas) is unnecessary. Alternatively, they want the government to evaluate the role of renewable energy, distributed energy resources, and municipal net-zero plans in meeting Ontario’s electricity needs.
The coalition is also asking the government to work more aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario, to reduce the harmful health effects of climate change. These include an increase in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, injuries and premature deaths from extreme weather events, and the spread of Lyme and other infectious diseases.
"We are in a climate emergency. Youth will be the most affected by the choices that are being made now,” said Zoe Keary-Matzner, Fridays For Future Toronto, in a release from Citizens Climate Lobby Canada. “We want a clean sustainable energy future - not one powered by polluting gas plants."
“The earth just passed through the hottest three months on record, Canada is experiencing the most severe wildfire season on record,” said Dr. Mili Roy, co-chair of CAPE Ontario and the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, in the same release. “Methane-fired electricity adds fuel to the fire by escalating the climate crisis, which is the single greatest human health crisis we face, and by escalating air pollution which prematurely kills 8 million people globally every year, including nearly 7,000 Ontarians.”
For more information about this event, visit the Citizens Climate Lobby website, found here.
