There are 87 electoral district associations (EDAs) in BC, each one of which sends an MLA to the provincial Legislature.
In July Max Thaysen was elected Vice President of the Executive Committee of the North Island NDP Electoral District Association.
Continue reading Max Thaysen: first two months with the North Island NDP Electoral District Association
By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Despite differences of opinion, a clear majority of delegates voted to adopt the Canadian Labour Congress’ (CLC) proposed climate action plan at its tri-annual convention in Montreal.
On May 9, workers representing local, regional and national unions weighed in on a climate action plan that will shape the mandate of Canada’s largest labour organization for the next three years. This is the first time the CLC, which represents more than three million workers across the country, has devised action plans as well as policy resolutions for different topics, including climate change, Indigenous justice, affordability, infrastructure, health care and organizing.
Continue reading Canada’s largest labour organization adopts climate action plan at tri-annual convention
By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As the world stares down an ongoing and rapidly worsening climate crisis, wealthy countries like Canada must hit the “fast-forward button” and push up their net-zero emissions deadlines to 2040, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said Monday.
Guterres’ remarks accompanied the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the last of this decade — which shows the goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 C “is achievable,” he said. “But it will take a quantum leap in climate action.”
Continue reading Canada’s Environment Minister says the federal government will take a ‘long, hard look’ at upping its climate target following IPCC reportAt least 1,000 people, representing more than 220 diverse organizations and First Nations from British Columbia, attended the United for Old Growth March & Rally in Victoria on February 25. They marched from City Hall to the BC Legislature, demanding the implementation of the Old Growth Strategic Review, a comprehensive 2020 study that recommended the immediate protection of the remnant old growth forests in the province. Not one of its 14 recommendations has yet been implemented.
Continue reading The Quadra Project: Protecting Old ForestsThe Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016, with the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with an aspirational target of 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
At the COP 27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022, only a few countries have updated their required annual carbon cutting emission targets for this year, and the United Nations’ Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has described present efforts as so “woefully inadequate” that we are setting the world on track to “catastrophe”. Indeed, current CO2 emissions are rising at 1- 2% per year rather than going down 5-7% per year. Even under the voluntary “nationally determined contributions” of individual nations, emissions are expected to rise by 2030, in contrast to the nearly 50% reduction needed to keep the temperature rise at 1.5°C. At present emission levels, we are committed to a global temperature increase of 2.8°C by the end of the century.
Continue reading The Quadra Project – 1.5 Degrees Celsius
