Yukoners Concerned About Oil & Gas Exploration wish the Yukon delegation to COP21 a fulfilling and successful trip to Paris.
Our main goal in our advocacy is to take action for a sustainable future. To this end we believe that Yukon’s as yet untapped oil and gas must remain in the ground and that the government of Yukon should focus all of its efforts on developing renewable forms of energy.
We recommend that the Yukon delegation to COP21 consider the following points in conveying to the world Yukoners’ priorities for climate stability:
1. Over 8,000 Yukoners signed a petition to ban fracking and LNG in the Yukon. (There were a little over 15,000 voters in the 2011 territorial election.)
2. The Yukon government should cancel all fossil fuel subsidies and apply those funds to renewable energy like, solar, wind, bio-mass, micro-hydro and geo-thermal.
3. All provinces and territories must adopt the objective of getting out of fossil fuels by a certain date. Heavy transportation should be given a limited time period to allow for the development of technology to reduce green house gas emissions.
4. The Government of Canada must review all the changes the Harper government made to the regulatory regime for oil and gas and reinstate the primacy of the NEB, CEAA, Fisheries Act, and Navigable Waters Act.
5. The Government of Canada must withdraw the four clauses inserted in Bill S-6 that infringe upon the treaty rights of Yukon First Nations.
6. Government of Yukon must enter into “honest consultation with all Yukoners before any final decisions are made on major projects that impact Yukon’s ability to respond to climate change.
The decisions we make today will impact future generations. Like First Nations we should be thinking up to seven generations ahead.
Let’s ensure that we are building a sustainable Yukon future.
Donald Roberts
Yukoners Concerned About Oil & Gas Exploration