After four years of Trump’s climate denial, the world can breathe a long sigh of relief. President Biden is signalling a new era of American climate leadership. Within his first six hours in office, he moved to return the United States to the Paris Climate Accord, suspend all new oil and gas drilling permits on federal land, and cancel the Keystone XL pipeline.
There is no doubt that Biden’s climate leadership is a direct product of the pressures he’s faced from Indigenous land defenders and a growing people-powered movement demanding climate action.
Instead of celebrating this new era of climate leadership from the U.S. government, Prime Minister Trudeau is choosing to mourn the Keystone XL pipeline.
How about instead of wasting his tears on the fossil fuel industry, he actually delivered on his 2019 election promise to Canadian workers: a Just Transition Act that would ensure “workers have access to the training and support they need to succeed in the new clean economy.” The cancellation of Keystone XL would be a good moment to deliver on that promise. Prime Minister Trudeau, where’s that Just Transition Act?
Marilyn Somers
Nelson