Time to ‘wind down’ fossil fuel production, SACPA hears

By Dale Woodard - Lethbridge Herald on February 16, 2022.

The talk of phasing out fossil fuels has started to come up at the Conference Of Parties.
Tzeporah Berman, who has been designing environmental advocacy campaigns and environmental policy for 30 years, was the guest speaker at Thursday’s Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs.
Having recently returned from COP26 – which took place in Scotland – Berman reflected on this year’s conference and one particular point which came up.
“I would say over from COP26, this is the first Conference of the Parties there has been included in the text a reference to a fossil fuel, which seems kind of crazy because we know the emissions trapped in our atmosphere blanketing the earth that are causing climate change come from three products, oil, gas and coal. But for literally decades there has been no reference to the need to wind down fossil fuels in order to ensure a stable climate,” said Berman, who is currently the International Program Director at Stand.earth and the Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.  “So there was a big debate about that at this COP26 and the result was coal was included as one of those inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and the need to wind them down.”
Berman said her work is around focusing on the need for planning.
“We actually have to acknowledge what’s happening and what the causes are in order to plan in a way that leaves no one behind. The debate about oil, gas and coal at COP this year was a bit of a breakthrough.”
Berman said the planet is already at about 1.2 degrees of warming, noting the fires and flooding in Alberta and B.C. in the past year.
“We just lived through a heat dome in B.C. last year, which was terrifying, and hundreds of people died,” she said. “So we’re all starting to live the impacts of climate change now and every ton of carbon matters, every little bit of a degree matters.”
The other big issue is around technologies, said Berman.
“A lot of the commitments by countries are based on over-estimations of how much carbon we can sequester by planting trees or how much carbon we can sequester from a carbon capture and storage.”
Berman said she’s not someone who says those technologies shouldn’t happen.
“I think those technologies of sequestering carbon are really important, but it’s important to take carbon that’s stuck in our atmosphere now, out, not to justify polluting more.
“What we’ve seen in our own countries and certainly the Alberta’s government’s climate plans, is this dependence on these technologies that are, right now, not working the way we hoped they would. They’re expensive and they’re going to take a long time to scale. We need to reduce overall emissions and production now if we want to have a stable climate. We also need to plant more trees and protect more forests and do more carbon capture and storage, but that has to be for taking pollution that is already trapped in our atmosphere, not to justify polluting more.”
The final big issue at COP was around money and equity, said Berman, such as issues of loss and damage and what wealthy countries are putting on the table to help the developing countries leap over the fossil fuel era and address the worst impacts of climate change.
“The impacts of climate change in the global south are way more severe and the equity issues come into play because they’re not responsible for the carbon that’s trapped in our atmosphere today,” she said. “It’s actually the really wealthy countries who are more responsible. So the commitments on finance were about $20 billion short and slow. The commitments on adaptation were really low. In fact, climate finance to some of the most vulnerable nations, small islands, actually went down at COP26. So this failure to provide loss of damage support for the global south will cost lives.”
Berman said she wouldn’t say COP26 was a success, but it moved some issues forward.
“But I think we have a long way to go.”
Berman was asked how this relates to Alberta’s oil and gas production and what she would say to the workers in the oil and gas sector.
“It’s a really critical question,” she said. “I think in the last many years we’ve seen, under Premier Jason Kenney, a real polarization of these issues to such an extent that folks who worry about climate change and understand that we’re going to have to move away from oil and gas are vilified, look at the Alberta inquiry and the war room and those things which have happened.
“Working on these issues and acknowledging we’re going to need to wind down oil and gas production and emissions doesn’t make you an enemy of Alberta.”
Berman said what they’re calling for is a plan. 
“We know Premier Kenney knows all of the major international economic and environmental agencies have put out reports saying the world is going to use less oil and gas in the future, that we need to get to net zero by 2050.
“We have 50 countries who have committed to phase out the fossil fuel car, including our own. So as we start to electrify transport as people move more to renewables at scale, which are now cheaper than fossil fuels in almost every major market, we’re going to use less oil and gas.”
Berman said no one is saying to turn off the taps overnight and everyone is out of work. 
“What we’re saying is stop expanding oil and gas production. Let’s put that money and energy into expanding electrification in renewables and systems that are cleaner and safer and let’s make a plan for how many people are going to be employed in Alberta this year, next year and the year after if we’re ramping down.
“So by denying this is happening and just pushing to expand we’re hurting the economic future of Alberta and workers and their families.”
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