Can we afford not to act ambitiously on climate change? The Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change by Sir Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, estimated that the world needs to spend 1 per cent of global GDP now to tackle climate change. Failure to do so could result in a bill up to 20 times higher, amounting to $6.6 trillion per year globally unless the climate crisis is tackled within the next decade. Our failure to act would place the entire burden of responding to climate change on our children and grandchildren.
Vancouver’s original Community Climate Change Action Plan (2005) plotted a course of action to reduce emissions by 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. The 2008 community GHG inventory indicated that emissions grew significantly during the 1990’s, peaked in 2000, and have declined back to 1990 levels. The planned expansion of Vancouver’s landfill gas recovery system in 2010 and 2011 is expected to reduce emissions to more than 6% below 1990 levels ahead of the target date. These reductions have occurred at the same time as population has increased by more than 27% and jobs have increased by over 18% proving that climate leadership and prosperity can be achieved together.
