Nova Scotia's climate action plan falls short: report
CBC
A new report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Nova Scotia's plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change is falling short.
The report, released Monday, considers a 2022 plan from the PC government that details how it intends to reach its legislated climate goals.
It says the government's goals are ambitious and "paint a rosy picture of Nova Scotia's future," but cannot realistically be met if the province stays on its current path.
"Our analysis shows that the changes envisioned by the plan are too shallow to achieve these goals and are at odds with the principles that are claimed to be its foundation," the authors wrote.
The Department of Environment declined an interview request with Environment Minister Tim Halman.
A spokesperson instead sent a statement via email, rejecting the report entirely.
It said, in part, that the report "presents an unrealistic view of climate policy that we do not believe would benefit the people of Nova Scotia or be effective in responding to climate change."
Jara de Hoog, the lead author, said the report started as her undergraduate thesis. She began studying the climate action plan shortly after it was introduced two years ago.
De Hoog said she chose to study the topic because she thinks about her future in the context of climate change "all the time."
"It really frustrates me that these issues just aren't being taken seriously and there's all of these ways that governments are saying that they're acting but they're not really truly following up on that," she said in an interview.
The report is co-authored by Alice Cohen, a professor in environmental and sustainability studies at Acadia University, and Andrew Biro, a professor of politics at Acadia University.
The authors analyzed the province's 2022 climate action plan using two sets of criteria. They classified each of the 68 policy items in the plan according to whether they were more technological or cultural, or more individual or collective.
The analysis found that the plan had an "overwhelming" focus on technological changes rather than cultural ones.
De Hoog said technological changes aren't inherently negative, but they shouldn't be the main or only type of action to address climate change.
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