The Green Budget Coalition has released a comprehensive set of recommendations on how the federal government can follow-through on its Throne Speech commitment to a green recovery.
“From job creation to fighting climate change, nature is one of our greatest assets,” said David Browne, co-chair of the Green Budget Coalition and director of Conservation for Canadian Wildlife Federation, in releasing the coalition’s “Recommendations for Recovery and Budget Actions in 2020-2021.”
The Green Budget Coalition’s four feature recommendations highlight opportunities to create jobs while accelerating Canada’s responses to the climate and biodiversity crises through additive federal investments in:
- Building energy efficiency retrofits – $10 billion to improve energy efficiency and reduce reliance on fossil fuels in schools, hospitals, social housing, and residential buildings;
- Clean transportation – $4.8 billion over five years, including $700 million for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles;
- Nature-based climate solutions – $2.6 billion over five years, including reducing emissions through restoration of forests, grasslands and wetlands, improved management of forestry and agricultural lands, and supporting natural infrastructure solutions; and
- Protected areas – $4.8 billion over five years, including increased support for Indigenous protected areas and Guardians programs.
The Green Budget Coalition also recommends federal investments in sustainable agriculture, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence protection and conservation, renewable energy, reducing plastic pollution, action on toxics and other environmental issues.
“Government has made some promising commitments, from planting two billion trees, to protecting 25 per cent of land and oceans in Canada by 2025, to retrofitting 1.5 million homes,” said Browne. “Our recommendations detail the investments needed to make this and more happen to protect nature, tackle the climate emergency and support jobs and communities through a green recovery.”
Twenty-five of Canada’s largest environmental and conservation organizations form the coalition. Together, these groups have more than a million members and supporters, and decades of experience solving Canada’s biggest environmental challenges.
“We will work with all parties to ensure investments are effective and action-oriented,” said Doug Chiasson, co-chair of the Green Budget Coalition and senior specialist of sustainable marine development with WWF-Canada. “While we are still in the midst of a public health emergency, Canadians are ready for real action on a green and just recovery from this pandemic that both improves their lives now and builds a better, more resilient future for all.”
The Green Budget Coalition’s members are:
ALUS Canada, Bird Canada, Canadian Environmental Law Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Canadian Wildlife Federation, David Suzuki Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ecojustice Canada, Ecology Action Centre, Environmental Defence, Équiterre, Friends of the Earth Canada, Greenpeace Canada, International Conservation Fund of Canada, International Institute for Sustainable Development, MiningWatch Canada, Nature Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Nature United, Pembina Institute, Seed Change Canada, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, West Coast Environmental Law Association, Wildlife Habitat Canada, and WWF-Canada.
To read the “Recommendations for Recovery and Budget Actions in 2020-2021,” click here.
