MEDIA RELEASE: Petition #e297 calls for climate change solution that works

Petition #e297 calls for climate change solution that works

SUDBURY, ON – Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Canada has launched an e-petition to Parliament, sponsored by Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, MP Beaches-East York, calling upon the Canadian Parliament to implement a national revenue neutral carbon tax, called carbon fee-and-dividend.

Carbon fee-and-dividend is a simple and elegant solution to help Canada meet its international climate change commitments while growing the economy. The federal government places a steadily rising fee on fossil fuels at the wellhead, mine or point of entry into the marketplace. The fee would make alternatives to fossil fuels cost-competitive, and spur investment and innovation in clean technology.

All the money collected would go back to individuals as dividend cheques to help them shoulder rising costs, stimulate local economies, and maintain public support for the rising fee.

“It really is an elegant solution,” says Cathy Orlando, National Manager of CCL Canada. “Carbon fee-and-dividend would put a price on carbon but at the same time help protect ordinary people from the costs of transitioning to alternative energy sources. It would be easy to understand, transparent and, according to many climate scientists and economists, it would work.”

Carbon fee-and-dividend is supported by Dr. James Hansen, the NASA scientist who first told the U.S. Congress about the dangers of climate change in the late 1980s. It is also supported by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), an international organization with more than 300 chapters in the U.S., Canada and world-wide, building the political will for this progressive carbon pricing mechanism.

The Citizens Climate Lobby-Canada petition for nationwide Carbon fee-and-dividend is at: https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-297

The Government of Canada introduced e-petitions in December 2015 to offer Canadian residents an additional means to make their wishes known to the federal government.  If the e-petition on carbon fee-and-dividend receives 500 names before the deadline of Sept. 8, it will be read out in Parliament.

About Citizens’ Climate Lobby:  Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is an international and non-partisan organization that empowers citizens to lobby their representatives for a revenue-neutral price on carbon pollution. Currently there are over 300 chapters in North America. In Canada, our volunteers cover more than 70 ridings in Canada.

Since September 2010, the Canadian members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby have, chiefly through regularly scheduled teleconference calls and conferences, educated themselves about the various aspects of climate change, from the economics and science to the sociology, communication and its myriad connections to almost everything.

Learn more at: canada.citizensclimatelobby.org
Related links: #e297 #climate, www.citizensclimatelobby.org
For further information: Cathy Orlando, National Manager, Citizens Climate Lobby Canada, Mobile: (705) 929-4043, email: cathy@citizensclimatelobby.org
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