Green Party of Ontario leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner made the following statement in response to the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

“How many more damning reports that tell us it’s ‘now or never’ to act on climate do we need before the Ontario government starts taking the climate emergency seriously?

Today’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is clear that there must be ‘rapid, deep and immediate’ cuts to emissions. Yet, Doug Ford is ramping up fossil gas plants, pushing through super sprawler, climate polluting highways like Highway 413 and the Holland Marsh Highway, and scrapping renewable energy contracts.

And instead of talking about climate action today, other opposition parties are trying to compete with Ford for the best way to make fossil fuels cheaper.

It’s completely unacceptable to normalize the impending impacts of the climate emergency like this. Ontario needs real climate leadership to avoid the worst of the expensive climate disaster — not more half measures and back tracking.

Ontario Greens have a real plan for real action to crush climate pollution:

• Implement a Carbon Budget for the rest of the century and will cut Ontario’s climate pollution in half by 2030 and to net-zero every year from 2045
• Use energy efficiency upgrades and heat pumps to replace fossil fuel use in buildings by 40% by 2030 and to net-zero by 2040
• Clean the air by replacing fossil fuel used in vehicles in half by 2030 and to net-zero by 2040 with electric vehicles, transit, active transportation and connected communities

Ontario needs a government that takes the climate emergency seriously. It’s now or never, so let’s get to work.”

To see the full Ontario Greens’ Roadmap to Net-Zero climate plan: gpo.ca/climate

source: media release