Carbon Budget, Science Should Anchor Federal-Provincial Climate Collaboration

PARIS, FRANCE and VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec. 7, 2015) - A new report - A Carbon Budget for Canada: A collaborative framework for federal and provincial climate leadership - explains how budgets and other best financial management practices provide a model for national leadership on climate change. The report, prepared by the West Coast Environmental Law Association ("West Coast") also calls for a national scientific committee to advise both levels of government on what needs to be done to fight climate change in Canada. West Coast has sent the report to the federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers, many of whom are participating in the climate talks in Paris.

"If you're in financial debt, you need to budget carefully. With climate change we're borrowing our children's future, and we need national and provincial carbon budgets," said Andrew Gage, Staff Counsel and author of the report. "Carbon budgets can lead to a science-based national plan to fight climate change and deliver on the government's promises in Paris."

"Prime Minister Trudeau has promised to work with the provinces to develop a science-based national framework to fight climate change," said Jessica Clogg, Executive Director and Senior Counsel. "A Carbon Budget for Canada explains how that framework could work."

West Coast is a non-profit group of environmental law strategists and analysts, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, dedicated to safeguarding the environment through law. We believe in a just and sustainable society where people are empowered to protect the environment and where environmental protection is law. For more than 40 years, we have played a role in shaping BC and Canada's most significant environmental laws.

A Carbon Budget for Canada is available on-line at http://wcel.org/resources/publication/carbon-budget-canada-collaborative-framework.