Laser Talk: New Government, Same Emergency, Same Lobbying Ask: Redirect Finances Away From Fossil Fuels

Laser Talk: New Government, Same Emergency, Same Lobbying Ask: Redirect Finances Away From Fossil Fuels

Until mid-June, our lobbying focus will remain laser-sharp: redirecting money away from the fossil fuel industry.

To do this, we’re calling on Canada to:

• Strengthen its approach by expanding and tightening both industrial carbon pricing and the cap on oil and gas emissions.
• Adopt Border Carbon Adjustments to stay competitive and manage trade-related climate risks.
• Implement Climate-Aligned Finance regulations to protect our financial system and ensure capital flows align with a safe and sustainable future.

Even if the fossil fuel industry could somehow remove the dangerous greenhouse gases it plans to release into the atmosphere by its proposed expansion, which are dangerous fairy tales of unproven and dangerous geo-engineering, we are in the exponential phase of the transition away from fossil fuels. Thus, ongoing investments in fossil fuels puts our financial systems at risk and are a major source of deadly particulate pollution (responsible for one in seven premature deaths globally), and a leading driver of ecological destruction worldwide.

CRITERIA FOR LOBBYING ASKS

We apply two key criteria to the policies we support:

• They must dramatically reduce global heating gases.
• There must be momentum—political or public—for the policy.

HOW WE WILL FORMULATE OUR FINAL LOBBYING ASK

Over the next month, we’ll all be gathering intel from think tanks, NGOs, politicians, and other experts.During our CCL Canada Catch-Up Calls next week, we’ll put out a call for volunteers to join our lobbying ask team. We’ll then hold two or three meetings to assign roles and set timelines.At our June Catch-Up Calls, we’ll review the draft lobbying ask with volunteers who attend and finalize it from there.