02 JUNE 2014

Not only has the Alward government shirked its moral obligation to take action on climate change, but it has failed to seize the economic opportunities that come with breaking our addiction to fossil fuels according to Green Party Leader David Coon.

"This is a vacuous plan that contains no action, but instead chooses to sustain the unsustainable," said Green Party leader David Coon.

"To cut emissions in the short-term, the Green Party would target our biggest carbon polluters, the Irving Oil refinery and the coal-fired power plant in Belledune, with legally binding limits on their carbon pollution using the Clean Air Act," said Coon.

"The Green Party will create new jobs in a new economy, powered by development that breaks our addiction to fossil fuels," said Coon. "Green buildings, renewable energy, local food, information technology, smart grid, electric vehicles, local business, public transit, health education, and sustainable farming and forestry; this is the Green Party's vision of our future, not the old pollution-based economy the other parties are trying to resuscitate," said Coon.

Green Party leader David Coon is a recipient of a Canadian Environmental Achievement Award for his work to promote solutions to climate change over the past 25 years. He played an instrumental role in the decision by the Eastern Canadian Premiers and New England Governors to adopt a regional climate action plan in 2001. He is a past-president of the Canadian Climate Action Network.