Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute, made the following statement in response to the Canada West Foundation’s (CWF) criticism of the Pembina Institute/David Suzuki Foundation economic modelling study Climate Leadership, Economic Prosperity:
“While we welcome critical review of our work, CWF’s assessment is littered with errors and omissions. Their critique seems to be more about protecting Alberta’s status quo as a major polluter than advancing solutions that will allow Alberta to prosper and be an environmental leader, so it doesn’t contribute anything new to this discussion.
“Albertans have repeatedly said in polls they want Alberta to clean up its pollution and deal with climate change. The status quo is not acceptable, and very costly economically—that is why our work is focused on offering solutions.
“Pembina’s policy proposal is market-based and would promote innovation in industry. By forcing polluters to pay, Albertans would protect Alberta’s environment while enabling our economy to grow 44 per cent over the next decade. Our analysis shows Alberta’s oilsands would almost double in size and Albertans would continue to have by far the highest GDP per capita in Canada. It was disappointing that CWF chose to ignore the very positive results of our analysis.
“The doom-and-gloom approach is an attempt to further delay action on climate change. Alberta is not an island in the world—taking action now can mean solid economic development, energy diversification and jobs in the future.”
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The Pembina Institute is a non-partisan sustainable energy think tank.
For more information contact:
Marlo Raynolds
Executive Director
The Pembina Institute
Cell: 403-607-9427
Pembina’s report Climate Leadership, Economic Prosperity is the first Canadian study of its kind to show how reducing GHG emissions would affect employment and gross domestic product at the regional level. It provides a comprehensive outline of policies that would enable Canada to meet both the federal government’s current emissions target for 2020, and a more ambitious target derived from scientific analysis of the emission reductions needed to limit average global warming to 2°C.