Climate Justice Project

Today, CCPA released a report by Senior Economist Marc Lee and researcher Amanda Card, which suggests that a new green industrial strategy needs to be at the heart of federal policy-making.

Accelerated oil and gas extraction will boost profits but won't drive major employment gains. Instead, embracing a "green industrial revolution" will allow Canada to meet its climate change commitments while boosting a lacklustre economy.

The report finds that less than 1% of Canadian workers are employed in fossil fuel extraction and production in Canada (oil, natural gas and coal)—and that these jobs come at a high price in environmental and climate terms, accounting for 27% of Canadian greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, A Green Industrial Revolution: Climate Justice, Green Jobs and Sustainable Production in Canada, aims to contribute to a growing conversation about industrial and employment strategies the federal government can use to transition to a sustainable economy and create a new generation of well-paying green jobs.

The principal challenge for Canada and other countries around the world is to de-couple the economy from fossil fuels. The transition to a zero carbon Canada will take several decades, and will have a transformative impact on the nature of work and employment.

Click here to read the full report.

CCPA-BC Director Seth Klein speaks at the annual meeting of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (an international gathering of leading economists) in Berlin. His 12-minute speech summarizes some of the key lessons to date from our Climate Justice Project.

CCPA-BC Director Seth Klein was recently invited to give a speech in Berlin at the annual meeting of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (an international gathering of leading economists). His 12-minute speech summarized some of the key lessons to date from our Climate Justice Project. You can find it on the INET website  (scroll down half way) or on YouTube.

Supporters of Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline claim that the project will create many thousands of jobs for Canadians, and have attempted to polarize public discussion into a "jobs vs environment" debate. But in our latest study, Marc Lee takes a close look at Enbridge's job creation estimates and reveals that the pipeline would create very few jobs, and most of these would be temporary.

Find out more: download Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares: The Economic Costs and Benefits of the Proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline

You can hear interviews with Marc on CBC Radio morning shows out of Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George and Prince Rupert, and this afternoon at 2:00 1:15 PM on CKNW's Simi Sara Show.

“According to Enbridge’s own estimates, the pipeline will only create about 1,850 construction jobs per year for three years. Even adding in upstream employment from pipe manufacture – if that were to occur in Canada – gives us no more than 3,000 jobs per year for three years.” — Marc Lee