EDMONTON - In response to the latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. issued the following statement:
“We echo the call advocates and activists have been making for decades for urgent and immediate action from all levels of government to address global warming.
“This latest IPCC report shows that with global warming already reaching 1.1°C, we are living with the devastating consequences of heat waves, wildfires, rising sea levels, drought and flooding. In Alberta, we’ve been experiencing unprecedented and record-breaking heat waves, and have been living under a haze of wildfire smoke, on and off for weeks.
“This is an urgent wake up call. If governments and politicians do not make real commitments now to reduce our emissions to net zero, we will continue to see an escalation of extreme weather, the destruction of natural habitats, extinctions of species, and rising sea levels.
“Public Interest Alberta has been hard at work re-launching an Environmental Task Force of climate advocates and activists. These organizers and policy experts will help shape our climate activism and advocacy as we work together to address the urgent and harrowing reality of rapidly accelerating climate change.
“It’s clear that it’s way past due for true climate leadership in our province. Real action at the highest level of policy and regulation is necessary and urgent. All parties in Alberta need to do more to respond to this report. We need a just transition away from fossil fuels – a transition that reaches net zero carbon emissions, and creates a sustainable future for all working people.”
