Vancouver — With wildfires, floods, and local weather disasters costing British Columbia billions yearly, a brand new report makes the case for a daring answer: make the fossil gasoline corporations most liable for the local weather disaster pay their fair proportion to take care of the damages.
Launched at the moment, “The way to Make Polluters Pay: Legislating a Local weather Restoration Fund for British Columbia” exhibits how B.C. can grow to be the primary province in Canada to go a legislation that forces main oil, gasoline, and coal corporations to assist cowl the skyrocketing prices of rebuilding communities and defending folks from local weather harm.
“When the BC NDP cancelled the carbon tax earlier this 12 months, they promised to make sure that huge polluters would pay their fair proportion of the prices of coping with the local weather disaster. This report exhibits how they will try this,” mentioned Charles Latimer, local weather campaigner with Greenpeace Canada based mostly in B.C.
British Columbia. already has a powerful observe report for holding dangerous industries accountable, main Canada in tobacco and opioid price restoration legal guidelines that made huge corporations pay again public prices. The report exhibits that comparable authorized instruments can apply to local weather polluters, following the lead of US states like Vermont and New York which have handed “local weather superfund” legal guidelines up to now 12 months (local weather price restoration laws has additionally been launched in seven different states together with California and Washington).
Annually B.C. communities and First Nations spend billions combating fires, repairing flood harm, and making ready for excessive climate. In the meantime, the fossil gasoline trade has made report earnings whereas avoiding accountability for the local weather harms they induced, harms that scientists and the businesses themselves have identified about for many years.
“No impacted neighborhood ought to must undergo restoration alone, and rebuilding efforts should be executed with resilience in thoughts. Local weather Change affect prevention, restoration and rebuilding prices should be shared with polluters, who’re creating the chance, reaping the advantages however aren’t paying a fair proportion.” – retired Chief Patrick Michell, Kanaka Bar.
Charles Latimer continued: “British Columbia has the authorized instruments and a transparent precedent to defend this type of legislation, and the price of doing nothing is simply too excessive to disregard. ”
The proposed Local weather Price Restoration Act would:
- Cost massive fossil gasoline corporations (like Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil) based mostly on their share of historic local weather air pollution.
- Use these funds for rebuilding houses, defending folks’s well being, wildfire prevention and local weather resilience.
- Make certain native governments and Indigenous communities get the assist they should adapt and get better — with out passing the burden to taxpayers alone.
Ends
For extra data, contact:
Patou Oumarou
Marketing campaign Communications Officer | Greenpeace Canada
+1 (418) 431-0263 | [email protected]
