OSPE invited to the Climate Summit of the Americas

Today marks the start of the much anticipated Climate Summit of the Americas and OSPE’s CEO Sandro Perruzza is honoured to have been invited by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) to attend. This two-day, invitation-only forum brings together over 200 government, industry, and climate leaders who are passionate about tackling the effects of climate change and knowledgeable about its impact. The Summit’s keynote speakers include Former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón, Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; California Governor Jerry Brown, Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne, and Premier of Quebec Philippe Couillard. Sandro’s invitation demonstrates the provincial government’s growing recognition that engineers can provide practical solutions on issues like climate change.

The Climate Summit of the Americas aims to strengthen the dialogue and cooperation among Pan American governments and will lay the groundwork for the United Nations-sponsored Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in late November, which will be one of the largest climate conferences ever organized with 40,000 anticipated attendees. The primary objective at COP21 is to achieve a new international agreement on climate change alleviation applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2⁰C annually.

One of the Summit’s objectives is to discuss emissions reductions and the mobilization of low-carbon market mechanisms.  As OSPE emphasized in our pre-budget submission to the Ministry of Finance and in our submission responding to MOECC’s Ontario’s Climate Change Discussion Paper, engineers possess expertise on the impact climate change is having on soil, water, and infrastructure, and can provide input on solutions ranging from resilient infrastructure design, cost effective energy policies that will also decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and increased investment in innovations on clean technology and other related green tech industries.

OSPE applauds the Government of Ontario’s action against climate change, including announcing a cap and trade program, setting a 2030 mid-term target for greenhouse gas pollution reduction, and ending coal-fired energy generation. OSPE plans to continue the dialogue with key government officials to ensure policies aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change are founded on scientific evidence and that solutions are based on sound engineering principles. OSPE is working hard to ensure that engineers are invited to provide input and share their unique perspective on a global challenge that is impacting us all.

OSPE will provide updates on our climate change initiatives in September – stay tuned.

 

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