Press release
January 10, 2020
Green Party Leader calls on Premier Higgs to Host Climate Summit of Atlantic Canadian Parliamentarians
Fredericton – Green Party Leader, David Coon calls on Premier Higgs to host an Atlantic Climate Action Summit in the Spring of 2020 for Atlantic Canadian Premiers and all-party delegations from their respective Legislative Assemblies to discuss coordinated action in response to the climate crisis.
“On December 20th, I stood in front of the Legislative Assembly during Question Period to ask Premier Higgs if he would commit to hosting an Atlantic Summit on Climate Action in the spring of 2020,” says Coon, “Premier Higgs committed to discuss this with his Atlantic colleagues during their meeting in mid-January. The Council of Atlantic Premiers is meeting on Monday, January 13th. Will Premier Higgs be adding the Climate Summit on the agenda?”
“We need an emergency response to this climate emergency. We are experiencing the highest relative sea-level rise in the entire country, and brutally intense storms with a 20% increase in precipitation in the autumn months. We need to build up our dikes, raise roads, withdraw infrastructure and people from our coastal zones and floodplains, while providing real options to reduce carbon pollution from motor vehicles with a regional public transportation system. We need the collaboration of every party in our Legislatures, and cooperation among our Premiers, to provide the urgently needed direction for a coordinated response to the global heating to address its consequences while reducing our dependence on gasoline and other fossil fuels. Just as it was legislative delegations who negotiated confederation, such an ambitious undertaking must involve all-party delegations from Atlantic Canada’s legislative assemblies.”
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