You may have read that Vancouver was the first city to adopt the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative that would consider the expansion of fossil fuel development in the same way as with nuclear weapons.
An article in the Los Angeles Times notes that city is poised to adopt the same initiative and join Barcelona and Vancouver. We know the financial support for the fossil fuel sector comes via subsidies at the provincial and national level. A September 2020 Stand Earth article points out that in British Columbia those annual subsidies have reached $1 billion, second only to Alberta.
There could be an opportunity for the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to advocate for adoption of this initiative at the provincial level. At the national level, an additional push could come from the Climate Caucus, which is made up of about 300 municipal politicians from across Canada and was actually started in Nelson. It’s interesting that counties like France, Denmark and New Zealand have put a pause on new oil exploration and production. With more involvement from different levels of government we may actually see some meaningful change on our way to a fair transition.
Ron Robinson
Nelson