Fundraising goals passed, CCL Canada National Conference dates, and more.

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  CCL Canada Newsletter
   
 
   
Table of Contents:
Fundraising exceeds expectations
2018 National Conference dates
Record number of print media hits 
50 Club members and honourable mentions
CSC reaches 70 members 
CCL Canada, the G7 and Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Deep Dive into Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Canada
Fundraising for Conference 2018 Exceeds Expectations

 

Once a year CCL Canada conducts a fundraising campaign to fund our next national conference. On average, the fees that we have collected at the doors at our national conferences have only covered about a quarter to a third of the cost of our national conferences. Financial contributions have allowed us to reduce or waive fees for people who would otherwise not be able to attend. Our goal was $10,000. We raised the most amount of money ever in our fundraising drive: $12,562 to cover conference expenses.

As indicated in our fundraising drive, all of the funds will go towards the conference costs including the venue, refreshments at the conference, two evening socials for the volunteers, travel costs for presenters, audio-visual equipment rental, conference swag, gifts for presenters, translations of documents, and photocopying. No money goes towards salaries.

On November 20, 2017, in the top peer-reviewed scientific journal on the planet, Nature, the following was published: Even if — and it is a huge if — all countries meet their current Paris pledges, the world will probably heat up by substantially more than 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures.

That is why we exist at CCL — to help our politicians do more. Your financial contributions at this critical juncture in world history literally means the world to us. We are now quietly behind the scenes fundraising to cover the hotel costs of the CCL volunteers who will dedicate 100’s of hours to make this conference happen as they have done year after year. So far we have raised $1,250. Our goal is $3,000.

 

 
CCL Canada Announces Dates of their 2018 National Conference
 

Circle your calendars. We will gather in Ottawa for the 13th time from Saturday, October 13 to Tuesday, October 16, 2018 for our fifth annual conference and lobbying days. Since November 2011, Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada volunteers have lobbied every year on Parliament Hill and in some years more than once a year. We know what we are doing and we have lots of fun doing it.

You probably already know that the world is dangerously on track to blow the 1.5 C limit and that Canada’s climate targets are woefully inadequate. Politicians need our help. We will all need to work together to bend the curve so that Canada will meet and exceed our GHG targets and empower the entire world to save our climate.

We believe that people are good, and that democracy works. We are confident that our approach will work because we see progress. We stand for a solution, not in protest of other solutions. We hope that you will join us.

Stay tuned. Registration is not open yet. We are going to change the world.

 
Record Number of Print Media Hits for Canada in 2017
 

 Next time you meet with a parliamentarian be sure to tell her/him that CCL Canada appeared on the editorial pages of Canadian newspapers 701 times in 2017 and had 17% of all print media hits globally within Citizens' Climate Lobby. This includes an editorial endorsement of carbon fee and dividend, citing Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s REMI report by the Postmedia Newspaper editorial board and syndicated in most of their papers across Canada.

Thank you to all of our CCL Canada letter to the editor and opinion writers, as well as to the people who fill in the online field reports. Politicians take note of highly organized grassroots groups. Your actions are showing the world how social capital can trump the financial capital of those who would oppose the actions necessary for a livable world.

 
CCL Canada’s 50 Club and Honourable Mentions

 

Thank you everyone for all you are doing in your ridings. As Marshall Saunders, the founder of Citizens’ Climate Lobby says, we are betting the ranch that people building political will in their ridings will win the day. All politics is local.

Many of you take great care to pull on our five levers of political will and then record that information in our database. For that attention to detail you have our deepest gratitude. Your actions locally are truly priceless.

Here are the groups that recorded at least 50 CCL actions in 2017 in alphabetical order: CCL Greater Sudbury, CCL London, CCL National Capital Region, CCL National Headquarters, CCL Nelson-West Kootenay, CCL Toronto Downtown, CCL Toronto East, CCL Vancouver and CCL Wellington-Halton. An honourable mention goes to CCL Halifax for almost achieving the 50 mark goal.

Our national director knows that getting volunteers to enter field reports is a big step for volunteers to undertake. Thus we would like to also celebrate those groups that entered two or more field reports in 2017 including: CCL Calgary, CCL Clearwater, CCL Hamilton, CCL Kitchener-Waterloo, CCL Lanark, CCL Manitoulin, CCL Mississauga, CCL Montreal, CCL Niagara, CCL North Bay, CCL Peterborough, CCL Thunder Bay, CCL Toronto West, CCL Vaughan, CCL Victoria, and CCL Winnipeg.

Someday, people will look back at this time in history and just may say, this highly organized and dedicated group of people called Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada made a difference. You are making history happen. Thank you.

 
Climate Solutions Caucus reaches 70 members
 

With their latest two members, the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the US Congress hits another milestone: 70 members. The most recent pair to join are Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat representing California’s 27th district, and Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a Republican representing the territory of American Samoa. 


Why do Canadians care about this? Canadians care about this because as the political will for effective climate legislation grows in the United States, there is a much greater likelihood that Canadians will demand a steadily-rising carbon fee in Canada that is harmonised with our largest trading partner, the United States.

 
CCL Canada, the G7 and Fossil Fuel Subsidies
 

Canada is the president of the G7 in 2018. One of Canada's five themes for the G7 are: Working Together On Climate Change, Oceans And Clean Energy.

In December 2017, CCL Canada’s Cathy Orlando joined the G7 Global Taskforce - a civil society group comprised of 325 individual members from 168 member organizations from around the world and from many disciplines involved in sustainable development. In late January 2018, Cathy attended a conference that brought together the G7 Civil Society Taskforce for two days. On the second day, they sent delegates to the G7 Sherpas to relay their final asks. One the five final asks from the climate group was:

Following its commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, the G7 must now present a detailed roadmap on how G7 members intend to meet this commitment and accelerate phase-out timelines. As G7 President, it is incumbent upon Canada to lead by example and agree to a peer review of its fossil fuel subsidies under the G20 process.

Throughout 2018 Cathy will continue to work with the G7 Global Taskforce to help make sure Canada and all countries in the G7 meet and hopefully exceed their climate goals. Additionally, Cathy and CCL’s Global Strategy Director, Joseph Robertson, have joined the equivalent taskforce for the G20. Argentina is the president of the G20 in 2018.

This involvement with the G7 inspired CCL Canada’s deep dive into fossil fuel subsidies this month in our monthly laser talks and our monthly actions. Our volunteers to date have sent 177 letters and postcards to Parliament asking for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

 
LASER TALKS: A Deep Dive into Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Canada
 

Since 2010, CCL Canada’s position is that governments need to phase-out all existing fossil fuel subsidies, including tax credits, over the five years following the enactment of a federal carbon price. The first step is to reach an agreement on what constitutes a fossil fuel subsidy.

Canada and the G20 committed in 2009 to “rationalize and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” by 2025, and reaffirmed that commitment in 2016. Ending fossil fuel subsidies was a clear and specific promise in the Liberal Government’s 2015 election platform. In May 2017, Canada’s Auditor General made it clear that there needs to be an agreement on what constitutes an “inefficient fossil fuel subsidy.”

There is an urgent need to reconsider the fossil fuel industry’s economic value chain in light of climate change. Fossil fuel subsidies are artificially incentivizing companies to sink costs into infrastructure with dubious prospects. The costs of orphaned wells, tailing ponds, climate disruptions, and other externalities will be borne by future taxpayers long after fossil fuels have ceased to generate wealth. Climate change is a game changer.

If you want to know more details about Canada’s fossil fuel subsidies read more here.

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