January 15, 2016
Province announces climate change strategy
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray announce the provincial Climate Change Strategy.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change released Ontario’s Climate Change Strategy in late November, detailing their plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

“The recognition of green infrastructure as a major part of the solution to climate change in this report is a breakthrough. Now we need to convince policy makers to invest in green roofs, green walls, urban forests and other forms of green infrastructure to match words with deeds,” said Steven Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

The new strategy sets out the government of Ontario’s vision to combat climate change and achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The plan’s goal is to establish a future where greenhouse gas reduction goes hand-in-hand with a growing, efficient, competitive and productive economy in the province of Ontario.

Lobbying efforts for the new plan included Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, along with partners Landscape Ontario, Green Infrastructure Ontario and the Ontario Parks Association.

Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, said, “The cost of doing nothing to fight climate change far outweighs the cost of solving the problem. Ontario is prepared to change and move forward because our future depends on the choices we make today...We must do it. We can do it. And we will do it, together.”

In 2016, a detailed five year action plan with specific commitments will be released.
 

READ MORE ABOUT: