Statement by Stephen Legault, Senior Program Manager, Alberta Climate following the close of the G7 meeting held in Kananaskis, Alberta between June 15- 17th
The Kananaskis Wildlife Charter, released on June 17th by the leaders of the G7, misses the most important, and most controversial point, about wildfires around the globe: that increasingly they are made so much more frequent and dangerous to human life and infrastructure by climate change.Â
To have a serious conversation about wildfire necessitates a discussion about climate change. It is disappointing that no mention of climate was included in the wildfire charter.Â
Most of the wildfire charter is a reiteration of how countries will respond to fires, rather than a courageous examination of how climate change is becoming a supercharged accelerator of wildfire in Canada and around the world. By not discussing climate change and wildfire, the G7 leaders avoided facing the stark reality of a world being inextricably changed by fire and other disasters, and also avoided discussion of the need to deepen their countries’ commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Â
A charter on wildfire that ignores the multiplying factor of climate change won’t save lives, protect property, and address the massive carbon emissions that result from burning millions of acres of forest each year. It’s going to make it worse.
