OPEN LETTER TO BC LOCAL GOVERNMENTS Re: We must hold fossil fuel companies responsible
An open letter signed by multiple community organizations urging local governments to take action on climate accountability.
OPEN LETTER TO BC LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
ATTN: Mayor & Council, all BC local governments January 25, 2017
Dear Sirs/Mesdames:
Re: We must hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate change
Wildfires. Drought. Flooding. Rising sea levels. Climate change is already reshaping and impacting BC communities in profound and frightening ways. As unchecked fossil fuel pollution continues to push global temperatures ever higher, we are frightened for our communities, for communities around the world, and for the world we leave our children. These impacts are still more challenging for vulnerable groups - the poor, Indigenous people, women and children - who are often unable to respond to unexpected weather or other climate impacts.
But there is hope. If the fossil fuel companies - whose products are the major drivers of climate change - had to pay even a fraction of the associated climate costs, they would not be able to out-compete renewables and would pivot towards sustainable alternatives without delay. BC communities can play a key role in demanding accountability from the fossil fuel industry for the harm that they are causing our communities, and challenge the myth that the fossil fuel economy can continue business as usual despite the destruction it is causing to our atmosphere.
The fossil fuel industry is keen to avoid a conversation about its responsibility for climate change. Just 90 entities - primarily fossil fuel companies - have caused almost 2/3 of human caused greenhouse gas emissions, and just three — Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco — are responsible for almost 10%¹! Like the tobacco industry before it, Big Oil relies on the perception that individual consumers are responsible for climate change while pocketing billions of dollars in profits from products that they know are disastrous for our atmosphere and communities around the world.²
BC and Canadian taxpayers will end up paying the costs of climate change in many different ways. But unless our communities demand that fossil fuel companies pay their fair share of these costs, this industry will continue pushing products that the world cannot afford to burn.
- Heede. R. "Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers. 1854-2010 Climatic Change (2014) 122: 229. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y. See also http://www.climateaccountability.org/ for emissions figures through to 2013.
- https://www.smokeandfumes.org/ ; https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken.
Conclusion
Both of these actions, as well as a general public discussion about the role of fossil fuels in our future economy, are most likely to move forward if our communities understand how we are being, and will be, impacted by climate change. We urge you to work with your citizens, climate scientists and other experts in a publicly transparent way to explore what needs to be done to prepare your community for climate change.
Whether we realize it or not, our communities are facing a tidal wave of costs, debt and disaster relief arising from the many effects of climate change. It is time to ask whether we alone are going to bear those expenses, or whether the companies that have made billions of dollars creating this situation also bear some responsibility.
By demanding that those who profit the most from climate change pay their fair share, BC local governments can dramatically reshape the global conversation about climate change and the fossil fuel industry. Community groups around BC will be calling on fossil fuel companies to take responsibility for their role in causing the climate crisis and we hope that you will join us.
Signed by:
- West Coast Environmental Law Association
- Coalition to Protect East Kamloops
- Kelowna Chapter Council of Canadians
- KAIROS BC/Yukon Kootenay Subregion
- Silva Forest Foundation
- Blewett Conservation Society
- West Kootenay EcoSociety
- SFU350
- UBC Environmental Law Group
- Voters Taking Action on Climate Change
- Wilderness Committee
- The WaterWealth Project
- UBC350
- Citizens Against Urban Sprawl Society (CAUSS)
- Atira Women's Resource
- MiningWatch Canada
- The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition
- Council of Canadians
- Kitimat Terrace Clean Air Coalition
- 350.org Canada
- Douglas Channel Watch
- BC Yukon Kairos
- Pacific Wild
- Sierra Club BC
- Dogwood Initiative
- Gibson Alliance of Business and Community Society
- Alliance4Democracy
- Sunshine Coast Conservation Association
- Comox Valley Council of Canadians
- Parksville Qualicum Beach KAIROS
- Georgia Strait Alliance
- Northwest Institute
- Friends of Wild Salmon Coalition
- Friends of Morice Bulkley
- My Sea to Sky
- Divest Victoria
- Wildsight
- Greenpeace Canada
- Burnaby Pipeline Watch
- Environmental Defense Working Group
- Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
- Public Health Association of BC
- KAIROS Metro Van
- Prince George Public Interest Research Group
- Climate Change in Focus
- We Love This Coast
- Comox Valley Global Awareness Network
- Earthkeepers: Christians for Climate Justice
- Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion-BROKE
- LeadNow
- Fraser Voices Association
- Stand.earth
- Knox United Church
- Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment
- Salmon Coast Field Station Society
- Saanich Inlet Network
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