FREDERICTON - The most impactful commitments in New Brunswick’s 2016 Climate Change Action have yet to be implemented, says David Coon, Leader of the Green Party, former member of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Climate Change, and MLA for Fredericton South.

“The Action Plan was designed to put us on a path to transition to a low carbon economy, but failure to implement its most impactful commitments has failed to put us on that trajectory, so the status quo prevails,” said Coon.  “The last major province-wide climate action initiatives were launched 15 years ago by former Premier Lord.” 

Coon pointed to the failure to implement concrete targets for building energy efficiency; to expand the use of renewable energy to supply electric power and space heating; to improve access to public transportation and electric vehicles; and to ensure carbon tax revenue would be held in a climate change fund to help families, small businesses and communities reduce their carbon footprint rather than buried in general revenue.

New Brunswick’s Climate Change Action Plan and its Climate Change Act requires carbon emissions to be reduced to 10.7 million tonnes by 2030 and to 5 million tonnes by 2050.  This will require a 20 percent reduction in emissions from the current level of 13.2 million tonnes over the next nine years.

“We have a choice.  We can choose to fight for our children’s future and set a course to get off fossil fuels, or we can avert our eyes and tinker with the status quo.  As a Green, I choose to fight,” said Coon.