Alberta NDP leadership candidate Rakhi Pancholi has announced what she calls, a detailed plan for climate action in Alberta – one that does not include a consumer carbon tax, challenging Danielle Smith to do the same.
“For eight years, the UCP has used the Alberta NDP’s support of the carbon tax as an excuse to oppose, rather than propose, solutions to climate change,” said Pancholi. “It’s time for a real conversation about how meaningful climate action is possible without consumer carbon pricing. I call on Danielle Smith to follow me in putting forward a meaningful plan to tackle climate change – one of the defining issues of our time.”
Pancholi says her ‘Made-in-Alberta Climate Plan’ includes decarbonizing and modernizing Alberta’s electricity grid to net-zero by 2035, strengthening Alberta’s industrial carbon pricing system, and introducing Carbon Contracts for Difference.
Other highlights include:
- Shutting down the Canadian Energy Centre, otherwise known as the “Energy War Room,” and reallocating all funding away from UCP partisan activity.
- Dedicating TIER revenues toward emissions reduction for industry and toward activities that make life more affordable for Albertans.
- Broadening TIER’s coverage to smaller emitters, lower the benchmark, and increasing TIER’s tightening rate.
- Reforming the Alberta Energy Regulator through an independent public inquiry and mandating it to address oil and gas liabilities.
- Engaging and consulting with Indigenous communities, including First Nations and Metis people, to identify goals, opportunities, and desired outcomes for an Indigenous Climate Plan.
Pancholi says the announcement expands her commitment to creating a climate plan that results in meaningful carbon reductions without a consumer carbon price, which she first made on the day she launched her campaign and expanded upon in a campaign announcement on Feb. 15.
“As someone who has spent his career working on the urgent challenges of climate change and energy transition, I am pleased to endorse Rakhi Pancholi’s comprehensive climate and energy policy plan,” said former CEO of the Pembina Institute Ed Whittingham. “Her sensible policy framework prioritizes practical emissions reductions, job creation and smart investment. I am excited by its forward-thinking approach and pragmatism.”
“This is exactly the kind of leadership we need to take meaningful climate action in Alberta—Rakhi Pancholi has put forward a detailed plan that is responsive to Albertans’ needs without compromising our values,” said Nagwan Al-Guneid, MLA for Calgary-Glenmore and Alberta NDP Critic for Energy and Climate.
“As Leader of the Alberta NDP, I will invite all Albertans to participate in its further development. Climate change is a defining issue of our times and an existential one for our province. Working as a province, we can rise to the occasion, secure the opportunities we have now and build new opportunities for all of us, all our children and all generations to come,” said Pancholi.
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Kathleen Ganley, Sarrah Hoffman, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse and Gil McGowan are also running for the leadership of the Alberta NDP.
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