MEDIA ADVISORY, Monday, November 11, 2013
CONTACT: Cathy Orlando at cathy@citizensclimatelobby.ca, 705-929-4043
Canadians head to Parliament Hill to lobby for a price on carbon
Keynote speakers urge Canada to take immediate action on climate change
Ottawa, ON – Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Central Philippines this weekend, was influenced by human-caused climate change. Officials estimate up to 10,000 people have died in Tacloban city. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced and are hungry and thirsty. Bedlam is afoot in the ravaged areas.
In Warsaw, the head of the Philippines’ delegation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be fasting for climate action and his storm-ravaged country until progress is made.
Citizens who are concerned about the Canadian government’s inability to create policy that will decrease our greenhouse gas emissions are attending Canada’s first annual Citizens Climate Lobby International Conference from November 16 to 18, 2013 in our National Capital Region. They will ask Parliamentarians to enact legislation that will place a rising fee on carbon-based fuels, thereby accelerating the shift to a low carbon economy, and give 100 percent of the revenue collected to Canadians to offset rising costs during this transition.
Recent flooding in Calgary, Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie, and Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines underscore the urgency to reduce levels of greenhouse gases before the global warming process spirals out of control.
WHAT: Canada’s first Annual Citizens Climate Lobby International Conference in our National Capital Region.
WHEN: Sunday, November 17; 10:00 am – 12:30 pm for keynote addresses. In conference room Notre Dame B, Media can speak directly to the speakers after their talks or can participate in our media conference 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm.
WHO: During the conference, citizen lobbyists will hear from renowned carbon tax expert, Dr. Shi-ling Hsu, who was a former professor at the University of British Columbia, and is now with Florida State University. Other speakers include Sam Daley- Harris, founder of the anti-poverty organization RESULTS, currently CEO for the Centre for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation, and author of Reclaiming Our Democracy: Healing the Break between People and Government; Mary Gorman, screenwriter, founding member of Save our Seas and Shores and grand prize winner of the Green Heroes Award; and Marshall Saunders, founder and president of Citizens Climate Lobby. Cathy Orlando, national manager for Citizens Climate Lobby in Canada, and Mark Reynolds, executive director of Citizens Climate Lobby will also be available for questions at the media conference.
QUOTES: Here is what Dr. Hsu recently concluded about oil and gas regulations versus carbon taxes in a blog titled “Do you want to pay a carbon tax or higher tax”: “There are lots and lots of rules and adjustments that EPA would make … The upshot is that this is going to be a very complicated piece of regulation, putting a lot of lawyers to work. As a law professor, I guess that is good news. For the rest of you, it is a tax.”
“Climate adaptation without mitigation is a suicide pact for civilization. A revenue-neutral carbon tax would be a market signal that could hasten our transition to a low carbon economy, and help us avoid worsening impacts of our high carbon economy” says Cathy Orlando, national manager of Canada’s Citizens Climate Lobby.
WHERE: Four Points Sheraton, Gatineau Quebec, across the street from the Museum of Civilization, 35 Rue Laurier, Gatineau, Quebec.
MORE INFO: View the agenda and the CCCL Conference 2013 Booklet found at citizensclimatelobby.ca
ABOUT CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY: Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) is a growing organization of local volunteer groups in Canada and the U.S. that is pressing for progressive climate legislation. CCL began in the U.S. in 2007. Canadian groups became active in 2010. There are now 141 Citizens Climate Lobby groups in North America covering 40 ridings in Canada and almost half of the congressional in the U.S.. Citizens Climate Lobby uses a model where citizens create political will. This model has proven to be successful in Canada and the U.S. by the organization RESULTS.
