If a biographer were to ask me to name one of the more dominant traits I possess, I’d have to say that I’m a true optimist. I have an inherent trust in the goodness of people. I know what you’re thinking – that in this day and age with the pervasive nature of the Internet and other questionable forks in the road that I am naïve. That may be true but given the last decade with the Harper government, I have cringed and gritted my teeth as I watched and learned how one federal government steam-rolled over an entire country. How could one party seemingly dislike Canadians so much? Now that we have a modern, made-in-Canada-for-Canadians federal party I think I owe it to myself to once again think fondly of the future.

One thing I do know is that I do not want to be part of the vilified generation that did not act to try and change the human attitude to saving the planet. It can’t simply be a case of us retreating in a sustainable way. I recently viewed again the BBC TV series entitled Planet Earth. I shuddered every time the narration spoke of how we may be witnessing this scene or that one for the final time due to climate change. The scary part is that the series was made in 2006 – just about the time our then federal government came into power. The following ten years Canada had an appallingly bad record on global warming in an already environmentally stunted, carbon hungry world Canada was in Paris at the United Nations climate change conference among thousands of international observers participating in one of the most promising international meetings ever held to tackle the global threat of climate change. For the first time in a long time, we as Canadians are optimistic as we infuse a new sense of energy brought on, in large part, by our three levels of government that were in attendance.

A December 5, 2015 article in the Toronto Star caught my eye under the title ‘Corporate Canada has important role to play in climate change.’ It was written by columnist Jennifer Wells and read as follows:

It was a poke in the eye and, appropriate given the venue, delivered with a great sense of élan.

Faux employees of JCDecaux – the French company that is No.1 in the world of ‘street furniture’ – fanned across the streets of Paris in the wee hours placing 600 ‘corporate’ posters in Decaux’s pretty glass transit shelters.

At first glance most of them looked like real live advertisements. An exception would be the funereal image of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with nuclear reactors sprouting out the top of his head.

The Air France poster, featuring a flight attendant pressing a finger to her lips could have been a retro ‘come fly with me’ advertisement.

Except the new ad lines read: ‘Tackling climate change? Of course not. We’re an airline.’

The guerrilla campaign was the brainchild of a U.K. outfit calling itself Brandalism. And it worked. It had verve.

Critics can mock the collective’s ‘revolt against corporate control of the visual realm’ mantra, and specifically its challenge to the ‘corporate takeover’ of the Paris climate talks.

But corporations have long taken control of the street as a means to sell stuff. (Witness those sight-blocking ad pillars in Toronto, not to mention the ad-wrapped streetcars.)

The Brandalists merely reclaimed, albeit temporarily, the public realm as a place for artful, possibly incendiary, conversation.

The question for business becomes, what is the counterpoint?

In the age of the great awakening – in which Canada re-emerges as a country that cares about global warming – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoes the likes of U.S. President Barack Obama in asserting that economic growth and a safer environment are no longer mutually exclusive.

This is the new political mantra.

But he has yet to prove the point.

As Trudeau stood on stage alongside Bill Gates in Paris, championing the launch of Mission Innovation, a global partnership that pledges to support green energy innovation, the point was driven home that American business is front and centre on the climate file.

The launch of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition spreads the net to global business, a bevy of billionaires George Soros to Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote (Africa’s richest man) to Richard Branson to Alibaba’s Jack Ma. The absence of a Canadian voice is quite striking.

Back in the U.S. the American Business Act on Climate pledge announced on Tuesday that 154 American corporations including Apple, UPS, and GE, have now signed on representing $4.2 trillion (U.S.) in revenues with representation in all 50 states. While the goals are not mandated – they are not insubstantial, from reducing emissions by as much as 50 percent to achieving zero waste-to-landfill.

Any of these initiatives can be picked apart. But they do illustrate, to use another of Obama’s overused phrases, that business, at least in some spheres, is taking a seat at the table. Social impact is the story of the day.

Yet Canadian businesses have assumed a curiously, and disappointingly, low profile. Perhaps they lie wounded in the trenches of the Harper years. Perhaps they haven’t quite caught on to the fact that it’s time to speak up now.

Instead, the voices we hear are those of governments – federal, provincial, municipal – and NGOs. Trudeau says there can be no ‘laggards’ this time round. He’s speaking to all Canadians when he says that. Corporate Canada is no exception.

The stars have aligned for the global community to secure an ambitious, enforceable – and desperately needed – climate agreement. The world cannot afford more delays on real climate action. In the constellation of global climate action, Canada is one of the stars that moved the furthest: The past month alone has seen tectonic shifts in Canada’s position on critical issues, from carbon pricing to climate financing.¹

That change continued right through the Paris talks. Over the past decade Canada often undermined global progress with backroom ducking and diving aimed at blocking climate solutions. These types of moves only served to blacken our international reputation. With a new federal government at the wheel, Canada arrived in Paris with a positive attitude and all the necessary fixings to be influential and constructive at the negotiating meetings.

Now that this historic Conference of the Parties (COP21) is behind us, I’d like to take a look at the general action items made by the committee.

• Welcoming the adoption of United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/1 – ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,’
• Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet and thus requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries, and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
• Also recognizing that deep reductions in global emissions will be required in order to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention and emphasizing the need for urgency in addressing climate change,
• Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote, and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities, and people in vulnerable situations. The right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women, and intergenerational equity must also be respected,
• Also acknowledging the specific needs and concerns of developing country Parties arising from the impact of the implementation of response measures and, in this regard, certain decisions as indicated in this document,
• Emphasizing with serious concern the urgent need to address the significant gap between the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation pledges in terms of global annual emissions of GHGs by 2020 and aggregate emission pathways consistent with holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Also emphasizing that enhanced pre-2020 ambition can lay a solid foundation for enhanced post-2020 ambition,
• Stressing the urgency of accelerating the implementation of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol in order to enhance pre-2020 ambition,
• Recognizing the urgent need to enhance the provision of finance, technology and capacity-building support by developed country Parties, in a predictable manner, to enable enhanced pre-2020 action by developing country Parties,
• Emphasizing the enduring benefits of ambitious and early action, including major reductions in the cost of future mitigation and adaptation efforts,
• Acknowledging the need to promote universal access to sustainable energy in developing countries, in particular in Africa, through the enhanced deployment of renewable energy,
• Agreeing to uphold and promote regional and international cooperation in order to mobilize stronger and more ambitious climate action by all Parties and non-Party stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other subnational authorities, local communities, and indigenous peoples.

Mr. Trudeau has alerted all and sundry that Canada is ready to cut carbon pollution at home, and will provide financial assistance to vulnerable countries dealing with the effects of a dangerously warming planet. This is a remarkable and refreshing change. And the feds brought to Paris something it has never had before: meaningful leadership from powerful provincial and municipal governments.

More than ever, Canada’s federation is presenting a united front on climate change. I’m not at all surprised at how truly optimistic I’ve begun to feel.
 

¹ Tim Gray, Sidney Ribaux, Ed Whittingham, “Canada returns to climate leadership in Paris,” Toronto Star (December 5, 2015): IN6