A Coquitlam resident wants city council to make the link between climate change and fossil fuels and will be bringing her concerns to an upcoming town hall meeting.
The city of Coquitlam holds meetings to get public feed back and answer questions and an upcoming one Thursday, April 11 from 7-10 p.m. at city hall, could have a decidedly green theme.
Sandy Ang, who recently divested herself of her car and lives in the Town Centre area, wants the city to send a letter to 20 fossil fuel companies demanding pay back for costly infrastructure to deal with the effects of climate change.
She and other residents concerned about climate change will be asking questions of the city as to how it is dealing with climate change and requesting it to sign on to the letter, a program of West Coast Environmental Law, which will also attend the meeting.
“What I want to do is activate the community because it’s in our hands,” said Ang.
There are increased costs as the cities deal with increasingly wild weather, including heavy rains, snows and dry summers, Ang said, and it shouldn’t be taxpayers’ footing the bill because fossil fuels are a major contributor to climate change.
“This has has cost people thousands of dollars — we’re paying that not the gas companies,” she noted.
Even in her own condo complex, Ang is facing higher fees for replacing downspouts and other measures to deal with heavier rains, while home owners pay to replace shrubs and grasses destroyed by colder weather and dryer summers.
Coquitlam is not the only city being asked to send climate accountability letters to 20 fossil fuel companies. Port Moody was recently asked to do the same in a presentation that showed the link between increased fossil fuels being pumped into the atmosphere and climate change.
The presentation also quantified the costs for dealing with issues such as wildfires.
West Vancouver was also asked to send a climate accountability letter to recover climate costs and elected officials form Squamish and Whistler voted in favor of sending letters asking 20 of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies foot the bill for climate change.
Ang said she’s under no illusions that the companies will pay, but raising the issue could set the floor for legal action, as some cities in the U.S. have done, and also get people talking about the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change.
“It’s better than sitting around and wringing our hands,” Ang said.
Indeed, the cities are having to deal with costs of climate change, according to recent stories in the Tri-City News, and are required to develop policies dealing with climate change and plan for infrastructure to cope with wild fires and surging water from heavy rains.
Ang said she hopes students who recently protested against inaction on climate change will show up for the town hall to ask councillors their questions, as well as members of the Tri-Cities BC Greens Riding Association.
“As a citizen of Coquitlam, I want to make sure there’s a future for my children,” Ang said.
