environmentalism
Monday, March 23, 2015 9
The Carbon Bubble
Shaking up the business community’s climate change
complacency
liane langstaff › staff writer
C
lim ate ch a nge—although a hot-button
issue for environmentalists and a concern
of many Canadians—has taken a political
backseat in recent years. This has allowed
the fossil fuel industry and investors to delay thinking about transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
The wait is over. The growing understanding of the
carbon bubble is set to shake up the business community’s complacency.
There is growing consensus that climate change
must remain below two degrees Celsius of warming to avoid the most harmful impacts to ecosystems
and vulnerable populations. Already major changes
are being observed. Existing warming of 0.8 degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels has led to the acidification of the world’s oceans, increasing heat waves,
and droughts. Furthermore, our current fossil fuel
habits are setting us on a path to cause four degrees
Celsius of warming by 2100. This four degrees Celsius
scenario has been described as no less than “devastating” by a recent World Bank Report—inundating
coastal cities and severely impacting food supplies.
Consequently, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and the 2011 Cancun
Agreements propose a long-term goal of “reducing
greenhouse gas emissions so as to hold the increase
in global average temperature below two degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels.” A draft version
of a global climate deal to be signed in Paris at the end
of 2015 even includes references to a complete phaseout of fossil fuels by 2050.
Regulators around the world are taking note. In
Canada—although concrete action on climate change
has been slow at the federal level—provincial policies are having significant impacts. British Columbia
already has a carbon tax, and Ontario’s Premier,
Kathleen Wynne, has pledged to unveil a carbon pricing plan in the spring of 2015.
Lawyers are also leading the charge. The
International Bar Association commissioned a Task
Force on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights
co-chaired by Osgoode’s very own McMurtry Fellow
and respected environmental lawyer, David Estrin.
The Task Force’s July 2014 report, Achieving Justice
and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disrupt [ۋ