Acting on climate change : Agir sur les changements climatiques : les solutions d'universitaires canadiens et canadiennes

In the short term, policy orientations that could trigger climate action include: • Implementing either a national carbon tax or a national economy-wide cap and trade program; • Eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and fully integrating the oil and gas production sector in climate policies; • Integrating sustainability and climate change into landscape planning at the regional and cit [...] In the short- to long-terms, the transition could support a transportation “revolution”: • Transportation strategies that move the sector away from its dependence on fossil fuel could rest on the implementation of a basket of options, ranging from electrification of transport to collective and active transportation. [...] Recognition that certain forms of economic development were causing environmental damage led to the notion of sustainable development as ‘‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’’ We have adopted a more re- cent definition of sustainability that emphasizes the importance of desired futures. [...] We propose that the specific transition pathways to a low carbon economy in Canada could rest on the hopes of Canadians for social and environmental well-being and help articulate a vision for the country. [...] The real-world consequences of these climate projections can be comprehended by thinking of past climate-related disasters such as the 2013 floods in Toronto and Calgary, the record drought in 2012 that greatly impacted the agricultural sector, Hurricane Juan that ripped up Halifax in 2003, and the 1998 ice storm that left 1.2 million Canadians in Ontario and Québec in the dark for a week in Janua