Ontario Greens launch transformative Roadmap to Net-Zero to tackle climate emergency

TORONTO, Oct. 28, 2021 /CNW/ - Today the Ontario Green Party launches Roadmap to Net-Zero: The Ontario Greens' Climate and Environmental Plan.

"Tackling the climate emergency is the Ontario Greens' number one priority," said Ontario Greens' Leader Mike Schreiner. "It is the most pressing issue facing Ontario and the world. It is the biggest challenge of our lives, and it is also the biggest opportunity."

"We are at a tipping point and need an honest, ambitious and practical plan that matches the urgency of the crisis we are in and takes advantage of the potential of the green economy to create new businesses and better jobs. Our new Roadmap to Net-Zero does just that."

The Ontario Greens' Roadmap to Net-Zero presents a vision for a healthier, greener and more prosperous Ontario that provides good, clean jobs, environmentally responsible and affordable housing, inclusive and caring communities, and a better way of life for everyone.

The Ontario Greens' Roadmap to Net-Zero will:

• Adopt a Zero Carbon Law that sets a Fair Share Carbon Budget for the rest of the century and will cut Ontario's climate pollution in half by 2030 and to net-zero every year from 2045.
• Clean the air by replacing fossil fuel used in vehicles in half by 2030 and to net-zero by 2040 with electric vehicles, transit, active transportation and connected communities.
• Work with Indigenous Peoples to protect 25% of Ontario by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
• Create new careers and better green jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, and improve business opportunities for thousands of green entrepreneurs.
• Use energy efficiency upgrades and heat pumps to replace fossil fuel use in buildings 40% by 2030 and to net-zero by 2040.

"It is too late for climate action to be gradual and incremental," Ontario Green Deputy Leader and former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Dianne Saxe said.

Ontario Greens recognize that urgency and immediacy is critical to tackling the climate emergency. That's why Schreiner tabled a bill this week that will set a Carbon Budget. "Climate action can't wait," Schreiner said. "If the other parties are at all serious about climate, they'll vote in support of this bill."

Around the world, individuals, companies, and countries are turning away from fossil fuels and competing to win in the new, green economy. Yet Ontario continues to lag.

"The Ford government is actively worsening the climate crisis with their anti-environment agenda," Saxe said. "And the incremental half measures and compromises of the NDP and Liberals ? like voting for pipelines at Queen's Park ? won't cut it."

A significant 25% of the overall benefits of the Ontario Greens' climate plan will be focused on disadvantaged communities.

"We have a roadmap for an inclusive, Green transition that leaves no one behind," Ontario Green Deputy Leader Abhijeet Manay said. "A fair and equitable plan to get us to a zero-waste, net-zero carbon economy ? without lining the pockets of the one percent at the expense of Ontario's most vulnerable."

"There is a way forward," Schreiner concluded. "We need a real plan for real climate action. Enough with the empty talk and unfulfilled promises. Ontario Greens have the vision and a clear roadmap to build the world people want so Ontarians will not only survive the climate crisis, but will thrive. It can be done, so let's get started."

To learn more please visit: www.gpo.ca/climate

Roadmap to Net-Zero

The Ontario Greens' Climate Plan

BACKGROUNDER:

The climate crisis is here and it demands urgent action. It is threatening our health, food
security, and well-being.

Yet while other countries are making real progress reducing their climate pollution, Ontario's
progress has stopped. Ontario pollutes the climate about as much now as we did in 2014 and
more than in 2017.

We must change course.

The Ontario Greens' climate plan is rooted in three top priorities:

• Crush Climate Pollution: replacing fossil fuels with cleaner alternatives and phasing out
  pollutants by 2045.
• Restore Water and Nature: restoring nature will reduce pollution and help us adapt to
  extreme weather events.
• Succeed Together: investing in people for a healthy, affordable and resilient Ontario.
  

Within these three priorities are 10 key strategies that will slash climate pollution and seize the opportunity of the green economy.

          Crush climate pollution:

1. Adopt a Zero Carbon Law that sets a Fair Share Carbon Budget for the rest of the
   century. Cut Ontario's climate pollution in half by 2030 and to net-zero every year from
   2045.
2. Keep money and jobs in Ontario. Replace imported fossil fuels by doubling Ontario's
   clean electricity supply
3. Clean the air by replacing fossil fuel used in vehicles in half by 2030 and to net-zero by
   2040, with electric vehicles, transit, active transportation and compact communities.
4. Use energy efficiency upgrades and heat pumps to replace fossil fuel use in buildings
   40% by 2030 and to net-zero by 2040.
5. Support Ontario entrepreneurs to build world-leading clean businesses in energy storage
   (e.g. batteries) and networks, electric/ fuel cell mobility, smart transit and low-carbon
   biomaterials.
   
   Restore water and nature:
   
6. Work with Indigenous Peoples to protect 25% of Ontario by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
7. Clean up toxins in air and water, especially in the most polluted areas.
   
   Succeed together:
   
8. Create new careers and better green jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, and
   improve business opportunities for thousands of green entrepreneurs.
9. Create a $2 billion per-year Climate Adaptation Fund to support municipalities with green
   and resilient infrastructure.
10. Focus 25% of the overall benefits of this plan on disadvantaged communities.

Other highlight policies:

• Triple public transit use by 2030
• Add over 2,000 electric and fuel-cell buses in the GTA by 2030
• Earmark at least 15% of infrastructure spending for green infrastructure
• Ban food waste from landfills
• Create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by retrofitting 40% of existing homes and
  workplaces to net-zero
• Eliminate subsidies for urban sprawl and freeze urban boundaries.
• Replace the Gross Domestic Product as the key metric of government success with a
  Canadian Index of Wellbeing
• Demand the federal government establish border carbon adjustments
• Stop all fossil gas hookups and new gas furnaces, boilers, stoves, and water heaters by
  2025
  
  

By the numbers:

Ontario Greens plan a transformative investment of $65 billion over 4 years, in addition to $30
billion the government has already committed for transit upgrades. These investments reflect
the urgency of the climate crisis, while creating huge economic opportunities.

Key investments include:

• $16 billion to accelerate and scale up net-zero building upgrades that will create new
  businesses, new careers and new uses for Ontario lumber while permanently cutting
  utility bills.
• 1.8 billion to train a diverse green workforce to do these upgrades by funding a years'
  tuition for 60,000 students, and ensuring they have work when they graduate.
• Help Ontario cleantech innovations to become world leaders in the green economy by
  investing $5 billion in an EV Mobility and green technology innovation fund, coupled
  with a $4 billion Climate Bank.
• Protect health and cleaning the air by investing $4 billion in electrifying transit and $1
  billion in getting the most polluting diesel vehicles off the road.
• Provide $6 billion in climate bonuses for low-income households to help them
  escape energy poverty and benefit from the green transition.
• Invest $1 billion to help Indigenous communities establish and manage protected
  areas.
• An $8 billion Climate Adaptation Fund to prepare municipal and provincial
  infrastructure to withstand our changing climate.
• Level the playing field with a steadily rising carbon price, while protecting most
  Ontarians by returning the revenue collected from individuals back to Ontario residents
  as a carbon dividend.
  

The cost of climate chaos far exceeds the cost of climate action. Much of these investments will
pay for themselves, by reducing infrastructure and health care costs and mobilizing huge
amounts of private capital and growing leading industries.

Further direct funding will come from:

• Using $4 billion in Green Bonds to capitalize the Climate Bank to make loans to
  commercialize and scale up green technologies. 
• Redirecting $16 billion currently used by the Ford government to subsidize electricity
  that mostly benefits high-income households.
• Ending $2.5 billion in fossil fuel subsidies (tax breaks) except for farming and fly-in
  Indigenous communities.

Please see our full plan at gpo.ca/climate for a detailed costing and funding breakdown.

SOURCE Green Party of Ontario