Over 500 people are attending a one-day climate summit in Calgary on Wednesday to learn about global trends and discuss Alberta’s energy evolution.
Alberta Climate Summit 2018 got underway at the BMO Centre at 8:00 a.m.
Attendees are hearing from international and local leaders on global energy systems and climate action throughout the day and are taking part in panel discussions on a variety of topics including; indigenous energy, sustainability, changes in the energy sector, the future of natural gas and carbon capture.
“We are talking about the opportunities in energy transition here today so we have all sorts of international perspectives coming, telling us about global momentum for the energy transition. But then we have a lot of local leaders and experts from Alberta talking about the opportunities they’ve seen and the opportunities that they’re pursuing in terms of transitioning our energy economy,” said Nina Lothian, Director of Fossil Fuels for the Pembina Institute.
Vickie Wetchie, from Montana First Nation, is one of the speakers and she says Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan is great but more needs to be done to work with and build relationships with indigenous communities.
“That needs to strengthen. I think it’s not just a consultation. It’s an actual meaningful relationship with the provincial government of Alberta and as well, a relationship with the federal Crown for First Nations,” she said. “Really there’s a lot of details that need to be worked out. There needs to be more discussion on how that’s going to look for First Nation communities moving forward in regards to agreements, purchase power agreements in regards to lands, in regards to resources and I think we had a great panel today to talk about how a project could look when it’s 100 percent owned by First Nations, 51 percent owned.”
As expected, some of the discussion revolved around pipelines.
In August, Premier Rachel Notley announced that Alberta would no longer participate in the federal climate plan after the Court of Appeal halted the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
On Tuesday, Notley addressed industry leaders at the 2018 International Pipeline Conference and said the feds need to find a way to build economic infrastructure and to get off of the regulatory merry-go-round.
Alberta Climate Summit 2018 is put on by the Pembina Institute and the hope is that it will inspire people to work together to evolve Alberta’s energy sector.
“How do we talk about climate in a way that’s constructive and brings people to the table and doesn’t alienate them so that to me is kind of a key issue that we’re faced with in this political climate where there’s sort of an us and them attitude and we’re really trying to break that down and find a space so that we can all come together and find opportunities and areas of collaboration that we all can agree that are beneficial and that we can move forward on,” said Lothian.
For more information on Alberta Climate Summit 2018 click HERE.
