By Canadian Press

Halifax councillors join Vancouver in declaring climate emergency

Jan 30, 2019 | 7:15 AM

Halifax has become the second Canadian city to declare a climate emergency.

Council voted Tuesday to pass a mostly symbolic acknowledgment that climate change is a serious and urgent threat.

The municipality is unlikely to receive additional funds from the provincial or federal governments as a result, but will use the declaration to stress that climate change is real and how it might affect its climate change plan.

Vancouver city council unanimously voted to declare a climate emergency earlier this month, and cities such as London and Los Angeles have made similar declarations.

Coun. Richard Zurawski, a meteorologist who brought the motion to Halifax council, said it was in response to a recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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All members of council were open to the proposal, with Coun. Lisa Blackburn saying she didn’t think “anyone around the table” would disagree that Halifax is in the midst of a climate emergency.  

Zurawski had asked that council direct staff to prepare a report that recognizes “the breakdown of the stable climate and sea levels … constitutes an emergency” for the Halifax region and provides recommendations that would accelerate the municipality’s actions to meet – and even exceed – their climate change targets.

He had asked for a report in 90 days, but council gave a timeline of a year.

(Global News)

The Canadian Press