Sask. calls for action after climate change report. Groups

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC), latest report, has prompted renewed calls from environmental groups to make Saskatchewan more aggressive in climate action.

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“The latest report really paints a grave picture and the picture says that we’re not really doing enough right now to tackle and meet those commitments that we think we’re going to get to in 2030, 2040, and 2050,” said Rob Deglau of EnviroCollective.

Deglau refers specifically to the goals of limiting global temperatures rise to well below 2° Celsius.

“Based on the current track record within our city and province, we’re not even going to be close,” he said In an interview Thursday.

In a joint news release issued Tuesday, EnviroCollective (a non-partisan advocacy group) and Regina Energy Transition (which seeks a just transition to renewable energy at a local level) called on leaders to turn Saskatchewan into a province that isn’t “held hostage by fossil fuels” and for the government to work with SaskPower will set a more aggressive timeline for transitioning to a 100% renewable power grid.

Deglau acknowledged that petroleum products will continue to be used for many more years, but said it cannot be the mainstay.

“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all,” the release said, quoting the IPCC report’s summary.

In an interview on Thursday, Brett Dolter, an assistant professor at the University of Regina’s department of economics, stated that the report reiterates what scientists have been saying for decades.

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Pointing to the extreme weather events and resulting damage Canada has already seen due to the climate crisis — fires, heat waves and flooding in B.C., agricultural droughts and more — Dolter said those challenges will only worsen if more drastic action isn’t taken.

“SaskPower’s thinking a lot about how do they get to zero emissions,” Dolter said. “The provincial government could set a date where we say by 2040 we’ll be zero-emission electricity, or by 2035 and drive towards that… Right now we’ve been counting a lot on the federal government’s policy to drive emission reductions.”

In an emailed statement, SaskPower referenced its  goal of  reducing emissions by over 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

“In 2021, updated forecasting showed we are on pace to exceed that goal and emissions will be reduced by at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by then,” the statement read. It pointed to the Golden South, Blue Hill wind facilities, and the Pesakastew- and Awasis solar installations that will be online in coming months. The statement also stated plans to make further cuts to emissions.

“The company is investigating a full range of low and no-emission power sources, including wind, solar, nuclear power from small modular reactors (SMRs), carbon capture, importing clean power, battery energy storage and more,” the statement read.

While there’s been some success in methane reductionDolter stated that more could be done in the province to promote electric vehicles, such as legislation similar to Quebec or B.C. The law requires car dealers to sell a certain number of electric vehicles each year.

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But in a province still resisting the federal carbon tax, Dolter said climate change doesn’t seem like a priority especially considering the province’s climate strategy is focused on adaptation instead of mitigation.–

“As an economists who studies climate policy, it’s been disappointing that the province has often misrepresented what carbon pricing is and how it works, so from that I don’t get a lot of confidence that they’re taking climate change seriously,” Dolter said. “I don’t know what it would take to get that to happen but I haven’t seen it so far.”

The problem is huge, according to Yvette Crane, Regina Energy Transition. And the consequences are dire, even if we achieve our current targets.

“At two degrees as many as 18 per cent of all land species will be at high risk of extinction,” Crane said. “And even with the 1.5 degrees that we’re talking about locally here as a municipality … there’s going to be huge challenges.”

Discouraging as it is, she said there’s not much point to sitting around frightened.

“For me, the next thing is, ‘OK what can we do about it?” Crane said, adding they eagerly await the City of Regina’s Energy and Sustainability Framework expected to be presented to council later this month.

“It’s a very ambitious plan and it does get us to net zero by 2050… but we want to push it to be even more ambitious,” Crane said.

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