CCL Canada embodies the following twist to an old adage:
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions – then most certainly the road to paradise must be paved with meticulously planned and communicated actions.
JANUARY 2023
Standing Our Ground II – Rebellions are built on hope
In January of 2023 we set a goal to help shift trillions of dollars toward a thriving and equitable planet. Our plans are based on a Theory of Change. In fact, our Theory of Change is also used by the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars Rogue One.
Watch the video to find out more who we are and how we work.
If you want to join the best volunteers on the planet and help shift trillions of dollars towards a thriving and equitable planet, we highly recommend that you join one of the Citizens’ Climate International Get-To-Know-Us calls on the third Wednesday in January. There are three convenient times to choose from. From February to May keep an eye on our website for specific CCL Canada calls.
FEBRUARY 2023
In February 2023 we conducted our first-ever onboarding calls. We began with the end in mind. We wanted to help our climate leaders across Canada keep their local groups focused. Why? It is a monumental lift to take an every day citizen and empower them to champion carbon pricing and associated policies that powerfully and directly shift financial flows away from fossils fuels.
Watch this video and you will quickly see that we are a community of focused volunteers from across Canada who are stubborn optimists, non-partisan and action-oriented. We are real people that meet regularly and dedicate 5-10 hours every month to build the political will for a liveable world. We have developed a monthly and yearly rhythm to our work that is comforting and gives our volunteers plenty of time to savour our planet while saving it.
MARCH 2023
We stand behind the politicians who stand up for the climate and we are highly focused on shifting finances away from fossil fuels. Not just for today but every day until we have a liveable world.
Carbon pricing is very powerful policy to shift finances flows and our volunteers also recognize that regulating our financial institutions is another powerful policy.
Watch our March education call with Senator Rosa Galvez and learn how the Climate-Aligned Finance Act will redirect financial flows toward a thriving and equitable planet and how you can help build the political will for the enactment of this policy.
APRIL 2023
In April and then again in June, we joined Citizens’ Climate International’s Bretton Woods Action Team. Climate leaders from over three dozen countries all directly contacted their divisions at the World Bank. Our ask was straightforward: upgrade the World Bank policies for a fair and sustainable planet.
Why? The World Bank has immense potential to shift financial flows towards a thriving and equitable world and the global financial system we have does not meet the needs of vulnerable and low-income populations, or the overall challenge of addressing the climate emergency.
For your notes CCL Canada has been lobbying their division at the World Bank since 2011. How many of you have ever connected with your divisions at the World Bank?
Bretton Woods Action Team
MAY 2023
What do inflation and central banks have to do with the climate crisis? A lot because central banks have the power to create money, and climate activists need to understand why if they are to campaign for change.
If you have read Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Ministry of the Future”, or have been following the work of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, you might have an inkling of how important this piece of the puzzle is for getting humanity out of the mess we are in.
Guy Dauncey is an impeccable teacher and sees the future we can create together.
We encourage you to watch this video. For a page with more resources go here.
JUNE 2023
In June, we hosted a special event about our inherent, Charter and United Nations rights to a liveable world. As well, two dozen parliamentarians joined us on the call.
Our exemplary panel included; Dr. David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, UBC professor, and environmental optimist; Andrew Gage, the climate change lead at West Coast Environmental Law and Sue Big Oil; Dr. David Maenz, Kaitlyn Harvey, and applicant 15-year-old Sabrina Dykstra from the lawsuit filed March 31, 2023, by Climate Justice Saskatoon and seven residents against SaskPower, Crown Investments, and the Saskatchewan Government; Lawyer Danielle Gallant and plaintiffs Alex Neufeldt and Sophia Mathur from the Ecojustice lawsuit filed in November 2019 in Ontario. It is making its way through the courts and making history at the same time.
Please note we meet in the summer but we don’t do major actions.
Why? Because resting is a form of resistance and savouring the planet must come first.
SEPTEMBER 2023
Over the summer CCL Ontario members alongside Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), Climate Fast, For Our Grandchildren, and the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign planned a breakfast at Queen’s Park to call upon the Ontario government to accelerate the reduction of GHGs in Ontario and pause the expansion of methane-fired electricity in Ontario. Our event cohost was MPP Jamie West.
The breakfast meeting on September 26 was marked by powerful speeches by Zoe Keary-Matzner from Fridays For Future TO and Dr. Mili Roy, Co-Chair of CAPE Ontario, and the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, delivering excellent addresses. The event was skillfully emceed by Vanessa Fiore, a youth CCL leader in Canada, who has been part of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada since she was just 16 years old. Watch the 17-minute video and read more about the event here.
OCTOBER 2023
In October we gathered in Ottawa, planned, learned and ventured onto Parliament Hill.
As global warming changes our world, the only thing that will not change is our undaunted spirit.
Read our national director’s media reflection on the conference and a media hit from the conference about holding oil and gas executives accountable from Sophia Mathur, a 16-year-old climate activist who has been lobbying with us since she was seven-years old.
Watch our videos and watch us search for Canada’s path forward while empowering each other to lobby for the transformations needed in Canada’s banking systems, taxation systems, and environmental policies.
Undaunted with Erika Beauchesne and Christiana Guertin
NOVEMBER 2023
The facts are quite clear that climate action makes our lives more affordable. Thus, we conducted a digital letter campaign that sent letters to all of our local politicians from councillors to senators cheering them on if they stand up for the climate.
Here are the facts:
- fossil fuel companies have spread climate disinformation for decades
- fossil fuels are a primary driver of inflation, alongside climate change, the COVID pandemic, corporate greed and the war in Ukraine
- Canada’s carbon price has contributed just 0.15 percentage points to inflation
- the climate crisis has already inflicted a staggering cost of $16 million per hour in extreme weather damages over the past two decades
- carbon pricing coupled with rebates, as we have in Canada, further improves the affordability of climate action.
#LeMomentEstVenu Digital Campaign
DECEMBER 2023
Watch a live update from COP 28 on December 8 hosted by CCL Canada’s national director, Cathy Orlando. The focus of the call was a global treaty to phase out fossil fuels and redirecting financial flows towards a thriving and equitable planet. It began with questions for the high school students on the Zoom call whom had recently experience a climate policy workshop using Climate Interactive’s EnROADS policy simulator. Thereafter there were a series of guests: Lucas Snaije from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty; Dr. Sanjiv Mathur gave an update on Canada’s cap on emissions; Kohei Noda from Citizens’ Climate Lobby Japan Alba Pena, youth climate activist from Mexico. And it was followed by Q&A from the audience
Since 2017, Cathy Orlando our national director, who is also the Director of Programs at Citizens’ Climate International, has been been an observer at all the UNFCCC COPs, the 2022 Biodiversity COP and the 2017 IPCC Plenary. She was also a women’s advisor to the G7 in Germany (2021) and Japan (2022) and she led Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s first forays to the World Bank in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Cathy has been directing us since 2010 . Between 2010-2017 she did this full-time without pay. She continues to volunteer for us as our national director. She comes to us with a very strong background on managing volunteers online since 2004 and she has an education degree, holds a master’s degree in science and is a published scientist.
In the fall of 2023, we hired two part-time deputy directors to help us all do more and have more fun. We are not guessing. We have immense institutional wisdom. We are grateful to all of our funders and want to put it out there we can do a lot more with your help.
If you don’t have time, please consider donating money.
Donate via Paypal
Alternatively, you can make out your cheque to
“Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada” and mail it to:
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada
2195 Armstrong Street
Sudbury, ON P3E 4W2
