This is Part 3 of our series, Unpacking climate solutions: False, Real, or Unjust?
Read Part 1 and Part 2 .
In the first two instalments of our series, we explored false and unjust climate solutions – peddled by those who want us to believe that the same relentless pursuit of profit that caused climate breakdown can also help fix it.
Real, just climate solutions require flipping the script: instead of putting profit over people, we must prioritize the needs of people and the planet as we address the climate crisis. Firstly, we must recognize that truly just climate solutions require a shift in how we understand our relationship to the land, rejecting the idea that the planet is here for the profit of shareholders, investment firms, and financial institutions.
Indigenous leadership and ways of being and knowing are critical in guiding us into a better relationship with the land, water, and ecosystems. Indigenous peoples have been stewards of this land since time immemorial, and they continue to be the most impacted by ecological destruction and climate change.
Shifting our relationship to the planet also puts us into better relationship with each other. The saying “live simply, so that others may simply live” is a good consideration as we think about how to build better relationships with each other and the land. As we shift from fossil fuels, reducing our impact on the planet and using fewer resources and less energy, we must think about how to fairly and equitably redistribute the resources that we do have. Moving towards just climate solutions requires processes that are participatory, accountable, and transparent to the communities they are occurring within. It means that people and democratic institutions call the shots, not industry.
Just climate solutions must include bold actions by the government to phase out fossil fuel extraction and use, hold corporations accountable to clean up their messes, and end subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
As polluters clean up their messes, we can repurpose subsidies and invest in publicly-owned energy and infrastructure projects, ideally through the creation of new crown corporations. All of these processes need to be supported by strong legislation that ensures community accountability, as well as ongoing governmental support for transition projects. Major social and economic transformation is going to be a bumpy ride – having a safety net will be important so that those impacted are meaningfully supported.
There’s no doubt that truly just and people-centered solutions to the climate crisis require large-scale transformations of our current societal, economic, and political structures. But as we push for these necessary systemic changes, there is a host of more immediate actions and measures that are in line with a just transition and can be implemented on a smaller scale to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis. These solutions can target specific sectors to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy efficiency, or promote more sustainable practices.
Below is a menu of just some of these just climate solutions:
Nature-based solutions:
- Stopping deforestation is a very practical means of harnessing nature’s ability to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Doing so would also protect people’s land rights, prevent soil erosion and degradation, and help us stay healthy (more on that below).
- Meanwhile, we need to plant new forests. As trees grow, they remove CO2 from the atmosphere. And when planned with local and Indigenous communities in a just and socially acceptable manner, planting forests can foster new ecosystems, increase biodiversity, and create jobs. It’s estimated that we’d need to restore 6.80 million km2 of forests to make up for the forest area that has been lost since 1850—three quarters of the land area of Canada.
- Tree-planting is not a silver bullet. Planting single-aged mono-species trees is not the same as recreating the complex ecosystem of a natural forest. That’s why supporting Indigenous stewardship of existing forests, and preventing deforestation in the first place is so critical.
- Wetlands must also be maintained and increased, as they are important carbon sinks. Bogs are important sites for a wide range of plant, insect, and animal species.
Food production:
- Restorative agriculture techniques and organic farming can keep more carbon in the ground and protect the soil (which is reducing at an alarming rate).
- Efficient use of industrially-made fertilizer can reduce the amount of nitrogen in the environment (which has reached critical levels already) and would require less energy to produce the fertilizer in the first place.
- By lowering meat consumption we would be reducing deforestation since the high demand for meat is the main driver in clearing more land for animal food crops and grazing. Plant-based diets have been shown to be healthier for individuals and have less impact on our ecosystems.
- Reducing the demand for soybean and palm oil production protects forests from further destruction.
Transport:
- Increased public transit can reduce the need for people to own vehicles; reduces the burning of oil and can make our world fairer, safer, cleaner and a more healthy and communal place in which to live.
- Transitioning to low-carbon public transit and personal vehicles (mainly by electrification) can have a big impact on the climate.
- The national electric vehicle charging infrastructure must be made ready for the rapid increase in electric vehicles.
- Reducing government support for air travel will help decrease the number of flights and hence CO2 and other pollutants in the atmosphere.
Buildings:
- Increasing the insulation and reducing air leakages in buildings are an easy, practical, low-tech solution to reducing the amount of fuel we use to heat and cool our homes, offices and public buildings.
- A more rapid change of building codes to make our buildings more energy efficient will reduce our need for heating and cooling in the future.
- Heat pumps are the most efficient means of heating and cooling our buildings. They use electricity and are available, cost-effective and usually easy to install. Replacing fossil fuel heating with a heat pump is an effective way of reducing our use of these fuels.
- Investing in low impact buildings—using natural materials, supporting community based living and building on a small scale.
Industry:
- increasing energy efficiency in industrial processes—e.g low carbon glass manufacture.
- electrification of industrial processes and heating reduces fossil fuel use.
- transitioning from fossil fuels to electricity/hydrogen—eg. in steel production.
- encouraging the use of recycled material feedstock—e.g. aluminum production from recycled cans is less carbon intensive than using ‘new’ raw materials.
Energy supply:
- investing in socially acceptable renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and small hydro. These are already the cheapest solutions but held back by inadequate investment and corporation-friendly political decision making.
- smart microgrids are small scale local energy systems that have many inherent advantages to the large electricity supply grids commonly in use today and can more easily be community-based..
- developing further intra-provincial grid connections (especially east-west) can contribute to a lower overall capacity requirement.
- batteries can supply power when energy from renewables is less than required (e.g. the wind isn’t blowing and it’s dark). There are short-term and long-term batteries now available. Other storage systems such as pumped hydro are cost-effective alternatives.
- encouraging community power supply, supporting small scale independent power producers and incentivizing renewable energy projects by calculating the true costs of fossil fuel energy sources. These are particularly relevant to Indigenous-led projects.
Low impact living:
There are many ways in which we, personally, can make a positive difference to the climate in a just and fair way. These include:
- choosing ethical banking and investments such as Credit Unions
- being part of a community (housing, agriculture, cooperatives)
- being part of the commons economy
- choosing low-carbon transport
- reusing, repurposing, buying less
- being mindful of where you shop and who you support
- Voting
Pushing for a just transition/systemic change
These are just a sampling of what just climate solutions could look like. But again, a major part of what makes these just climate solutions is the ways in which these solutions involve and are accountable to those who are most impacted by the climate crisis: Indigenous people, migrants, people with disabilities, women, etc. By centering these groups, climate solutions are better positioned to begin to decolonize our ways of being, and address inequality, human rights concerns, poverty, homelessness, and job security, to name a few.
Join us in pushing for climate, social, and economic policies that put power back into the hands of workers and communities – paid for by the same corporations who’ve been profiting off of climate breakdown and pushing more of us into poverty. Together, let’s demand leadership that puts people and the planet before corporate profits!
This is Part 3 of our series, Unpacking climate solutions: False, Real, or Unjust?
Read Part 1 and Part 2 .
